Running Investigations
Running Investigations
AX.GHW.14.01.02
Investigation Structure
Most scenarios have an investigation layer, the characters need to find information before they can engage the threat.
Start in the middle. By the time the characters are involved, something has already happened. A death has been reported. A pattern has been noticed. A contact has gone dark. The characters arrive after the inciting event, not before. This creates immediate forward momentum; they are already behind the clock.
Three-clue redundancy. Every key piece of information the characters need should be available through at least three different avenues, physical evidence, witness testimony, and research (Lore or Mediumship tradition). If the characters miss the physical evidence at the scene, they can find the information through a witness or from a Network lore archive. This is not about making the investigation easy; it is about ensuring that bad luck on a single roll does not stall the story.
Let the threat have a life outside the encounter. Between scenes, the threat is doing things. A Vampire Elder is feeding and managing their territory. A Possessed Operative is continuing to gather intelligence. A Necromancer is advancing their project. When the characters arrive at a location, what was happening just before they got there? What will happen if they wait two more hours? Making the threat active creates urgency and rewards aggressive investigation.
Scene Types in Investigation
Physical examination: The characters examine a location, body, or object for evidence. Primary tools: Notice, Lore, Medicine (Forensics), Technical (Forensic Analysis). Structure: what is immediately visible, what requires a roll to find, what requires the right tradition or Focus to detect. Always have at least one clue that is visible without a roll, investigators who fail to find anything at all lose momentum and engagement.
Witness interviews: The characters talk to people who saw or know something. Primary tools: Deceive, Persuade, Wit + Resolve for reading the witness. Structure: what the witness knows (which may not be all of what they saw), how willing they are to share it, what they need before they'll talk (reassurance, evidence that they're not crazy, a specific question to answer). Witnesses in the hidden world often know more than they're willing to admit; they saw something they've been trying to explain away for weeks.
Research: The characters consult archives, contacts, and databases. Primary tools: Lore, Technical (Computer Systems), organizational resources. Structure: what the character's own knowledge covers, what requires sourcing (Network contact, Grimoire Compact access, BUA database query), and what is not in any accessible archive. Research scenes are most interesting when they uncover something that reframes what the characters thought they knew, the threat is not what they assumed it was, or it has a history that complicates the simple solution.
Surveillance: The characters watch something or someone before engaging. Primary tools: Notice, Stealth, Technical (Surveillance). Structure: what they observe, what patterns they identify, whether the threat detects them. Surveillance scenes reward patience and create tactical intelligence that improves subsequent engagement.
Making Rolls Matter
Investigation rolls that fail should not just produce "you find nothing." Failure should produce something, a wrong conclusion, a partial answer, a delay that has consequences, or information that is accurate but misleading until additional context arrives.
Failed Notice at a scene: The characters miss a specific detail. Later, that detail matters, either because the threat uses the thing they missed against them, or because a second-pass examination (after they have more context) surfaces it and changes their understanding.
Failed Lore: The character's knowledge is incomplete or outdated. They identify the threat correctly but believe a weakness applies when it doesn't, or vice versa. This should produce a genuine mistake in the field, not an automatic "you know nothing."
Failed Mediumship sensing: The tradition gave a partial or confused impression. The character sensed something real but interpreted it incorrectly; they detected Shadow presence where the actual threat is a Possessed individual whose shadow compact has a passive resonance. The error is correctable but costs time.
Investigation Tools by Threat Category
Different threat categories leave different evidence signatures. Use this as a quick reference when building investigation scenes:
| Category | Physical Evidence | Tradition Sensing | Research Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| Undead | Bite wounds, drained bodies, cold spots, grave disturbance | Mediumship (Liminal presence), Sacred Fire (undead resonance) | Network lore, Grimoire Compact |
| Shadow Entities | Cold traces, compact sigils, unusual cold burns, possession behavioral signs | Sacred Fire (Shadow resonance), Hollow Pact (compact signature) | Order of the Warden's Flame, Sovereign Circle, Grimoire Compact |
| Shapeshifter | Claw marks at unusual height, shed hair/scales, silver-responsive wounds | Pact-Shifting (shared resonance), Acute Scent (Skinchanger) | Network, Compact of Lines, Obsidian Solutions |
| Fae | Impossible plant growth, temporal anomalies, glamour residue, Rowan displacement | Glamourist (True Sight), Faeborn True Seeing | Threshold Society, Grimoire Compact |
| Cryptid | Track evidence, electromagnetic anomalies, livestock patterns | Mediumship (Liminal signature), EMF detector | Network, Grimoire Compact field surveys |
| Cursed/Possessed | Behavioral incongruity, curse marks (tradition-visible), compact resonance | Mediumship (possession detection), Sacred Fire (curse identification) | Grimoire Compact, Hollow Pact practitioners |
| Aberration | Physics anomalies, Breach resonance, Veil Fracture in witnesses | Mediumship (Breach detection), all tradition practitioners (ambient distortion) | BUA classified files, Grimoire Compact rare archives |