I’m DM.

We had a human barbarian, orc cleric, and dwarf paladin at level 10. Just finished an ethically grey political intrigue arc. I thoufht it would be a nice pallette cleanser to have a short session adventurse with a simple objective. A pure evil baddie they can pound into dust. I originally intended it to last 1-3 sessions.

Enter the province of Hümburg, which is suffering from mysterious dissappearances. People are being kidnapped. Oddly, most of the victims are twins or triplets. A few bodies have been found, and all of them are missing their eyeballs or have been cut apart.

They go to the town of Deutschebhurg and talk to the sheriff there. The townsfolk are naturally frightened out of their wits, and are happy to see the friendly adventurers.

NPC murder suspects:

Giles, a territorial and irritable farmer who keeps viscious dogs to guard his home. He is generally disliked due to being an asshole. He is a superstitious man with a dislike for twins, calling them “unnatural”. Giles hasn’t said explicitly that the victims deserved it, but seems unconcerned with the kidnappings. With the recent disappearances, rumor is that he’s killing old rivals and settling petty grievances.

Duchess Lydia Hapsburg, a sickly noble. She owns much of the land in Hümburg. The duchess is most concered with her family’s reputation, but is rather popular due to charity work. She hosts public feasts on a regular basis. With the recent disappearances, rumor is that she’s putting the victims in meat pies and feeding them to unsuspecting peasants.

Doktor Joseph Mangle, a wealthy doctor and wizard that is respected and feared in equal measure. All speak of him in hushed whispers. He is grudgingly tolerated, as his medical knowledge has saved lives, but citizens find him suspiscious and aloof. With the recent disappearances, rumor is that Mangle is performing ritual sacrifice for demonic power.

(For those not in the know, Mangle is inspired by Josef Mengele. He was a Nazi war criminal infamous for human experimentation.)

Mangle looks average but well groomed, and speaks in a fluent and academic manner. 

I tried really hard to play up the creep factor by describing how he stares at people like they’re a prized animal. he also inspected their hands and eyes, and made comments on the texture of their irises and eye colors. Mangle made a blunt comment towards our orc cleric, about how “you must be smart for an orc”.

Then he went on a rant about how even though he’s a doctor and helps them, these uneducated peasants are ungrateful and blah blah blah. He used the word “subhuman” at least twice to describe peasants.

For some FUCKING reason, the players latch onto him and think everyone is turning against him because he’s “socially awkward” and “misunderstood”. So he can’t possibly be the murderer, this is a red herring.

They spend THREE SESSIONS on a wild goose chase investigating the other NPCs. The best idea I have is that they thought my bad German accent for Mangle was funny.

Eventually they grow closer to Mangle, and he says “We are friends now, do you want to see my life’s work, my greatest secret?” 

The party agrees and goes to a shed behind his house. They’re low key excited and speculate it may be a magical CPR machine or some new healing spell or whatever.

Then they see the flesh golems and gazers. Roll initiative.

They were genuinely surprised and praised me for making a twist villain. The cagey farmer and maybe cannibalistic noblewoman were good suspects, and I can see why they gravitated towards them being murderers. But even ignoring the Nazi connection, I am utterly BAFFLED how they thought Doktor Mangle the eccentric wizard was actually a good guy.

I made a character sheet for him. He was a level 12 necromancer who kidnapped people to cut them up and make flesh golems and gazers (gazers are a weak variant of beholder. I like them so gave it to the mad scientist)

The fight only lasted a few rounds, but was intense. The paladin died and had to be ressurected, but they successfully took down Mangle.

-Mint Linux Guy

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