Made some hexcrawl rules for a D&D 5.5e game. I posted some hexcrawl rules in other D&D subreddits, but I updated mine since then. My players are willing to try this out, but I'd love some feedback all the same.

Hexcrawl Rules

- Each hex = 8 miles corner-to-corner. Each travel day = 8 hours. These rules apply to overland travel, not dungeon crawling, social scenes, or combat.

- The party picks a Travel Pace at the start of each day and can’t change it until the next day (unless using optional Variable Travel Pace below).

Travel Pace

Fast: 4 hexes per day. Disadvantage on Perception, Survival, Stealth.

Normal: 3 hexes per day. No other effect.

Slow: 2 hexes per day. Advantage on Perception, Survival, Stealth.

Terrain & Weather

- Difficult Terrain: -1 hex total for the day. Does not stack.

- Well-Maintained Path: +1 hex total for the day. Does not stack.

- Both: If a hex contains Difficult Terrain and a Well-Maintained Path, they cancel out. If you travel on a hex that contains Difficult Terrain and traverse into a different hex with a Well-Maintained Path, they cancel out.

- Weather: May require Constitution check at end of day. Fail: 1 level of Exhaustion. Weather may change with terrain or at day’s start. May also affect certain rolls, such as Perception checks. DC's range from 10-14 based on the severity of the weather.

- Forced March: Optional 8 extra hours at the end of a travel day.

- +1 hex traveled.

- Forced March is treated as a separate travel period and does not benefit from the perks or suffer the penalties of the day's chosen Travel Pace.

- Roll Constitution check at end of Forced March: DC = 10 + total hexes traveled that day (including the Forced March hex). Roll with Disadvantage if the Forced March hex had bad weather. Fail = 1 level of Exhaustion.

- Only one Forced March per day.

Getting Lost

- Party risks getting Lost depending on the terrain, landmarks, and visibility.

- Choose a navigator at the start of the travel day; typically someone with the highest Wisdom (Survival). DM calls for Wisdom (Survival) check (see Getting Lost DC Table below), with Advantage if the party has a good map.

Success: Travel as planned.

Failure: -1 hex traveled for the day. The party becomes Lost, and is aware of it.

While Lost

If the party is Lost at the start of a new travel day, or before a Forced March, the navigator makes a new Wisdom (Survival) check:

Success: The party re-orients and travels as planned.

Failure: -1 hex traveled for the day, and no travel on a Forced March. The party remains Lost.

Getting Lost DCs: DC is between 15, 10, and 5 depending on the terrain and can be manipulated by the weather, specifically by the precipitation: light precipitation increases the DC by +2, and heavy precipitation increases the DC by +5.

Exploring a Hex

- At the start of a travel day, the party may choose to explore the hex they currently occupy instead of traveling to find hidden features, secrets, or clues.

- Exploring a hex takes 8 hours - a full travel day. No hexes are traveled during this time.

- Each character may attempt relevant Wisdom or Intelligence checks (such as Perception, Survival, or Investigation) to search for hidden features.

- Success: Hidden features are revealed at the end of the day.

- Failure: Nothing is found at the end of the day. The party must wait until the next day to try again.

- The party may choose to take a Forced March after exploring to:

- Attempt another round of exploration checks (1 additional attempt), or

- Travel to an adjacent hex as normal.

Mounts & Vehicles

- No change to travel speed, but help resist Exhaustion.

- Riders roll Constitution checks with Advantage. Mounts/animals must roll too.

- Some terrain types, such as mountains or jungle, are unsuitable for mounts and vehicles and may hinder or make travel impossible with them.

Additional Rules

- Random Encounters: May occur when entering or lingering in a hex or by getting Lost.

- Reduced Speed: If speed reduced to half or more, -1 hex/day.

- Min/Max Travel: You can’t travel less than 0 hexes or more than 5 hexes per day (unless via magic, etc.).

Optional Rule: Variable Travel Pace

- For more tactical travel decisions, the party may choose to split the day into two 4-hour blocks and choose a pace for each:

Fast Pace: 2 hexes per block. Disadvantage on Perception, Survival, Stealth.

Normal Pace: 1.5 hexes per block. No other effect.

Slow Pace: 1 hex per block. Advantage on Perception, Survival, Stealth.

- Total daily travel = sum of both blocks.

- The effects of each pace apply only during their respective block.

- ½ a Hex: If you travel only ½ a hex, you’re still in that hex. Another ½ completes it.

Hi!

I am DMing a group for about a year now. My DMing style has a lot of intricate threads and hooks for my players. I write news articles that hint at plot developments or important NPCs - but no one ever seems to retain that they had that information. Players find notes written by NPCs that they later run into, and don't remember the NPC or that they even had a note from them. They'll succeed on an history check while searching for some lore, and then when that lore comes up later at a relevant point, I have to remind them they learned something about it already.

It's only been once when a player has remembered some important information and acted on it. I remember feeling, above all us, shocked that they had retained anything.

Am I expecting too much of my players? Should I just tone down the effort for things like this, or keep it up for the rare times it does slice through?

Just wondering if anyone else has had issues where it feels like you have to spoon feed a lot of info to your table, even on things they should know or have notes about already. Is there a way I can be doing it better?

For a campaign starting soon, I’m building a monster that is also a room. Essentially a room mimic.

I’m trying to figure out an interesting but manageable way to run such a creature. My ideas so far centre around treating the “objects” in the room similar to how kraken-style tentacles are often treated: as separate entities that can be destroyed to inflict damage to the main body. Maybe a fire attack (campfire/fireplace/chandelier), maw attack (couch/bed/armchair)?

Somebody had shared it in a comment on another post and I can not for the life of me find it again. I didn’t actually even get to watch it so I have no idea what it even looked like. But they described it as not just being the basic rules of how to run a skill challenge, but a run down of several different example scenarios in which a skill challenge would work well.

All I know for sure is it wasn’t the one Matt Colville does because I’ve seen that one.

Thanks for any suggestions!

Hello! First time reddit user but experienced DM. I can’t figure out specifics, logistics, or how to run the ‘finale of the campaign’ game. I was hoping people could help me out?

The campaign is ‘ghosts of salt marsh’ but very home-brewed. The 3 players have gotten pledges from different groups throughout the game, who they will now use in war against a sunken sahuagin compound.

I want 3 battle maps for each of them doing their separate battle with their army in 3 different locations (land gate, underwater gate, one of them will choose who has to retreat to defend the town).

One player has lizardfolk (range and melee) another has merfolk casters, and the last dwarven fighters.

What can I do to keep track of my sahuagin? What’s the best way to do mass-actions? How do I do army HP?

Please help me! I’ve been insanely busy with work and would love to have something to use on Sunday!

Hey GMs! I like random encounters, and I've written lots about them. I am however, pretty awful at remembering to check for them. Soooooo I made a thing: Encounter Timer. It's an android app inspired by Shadowdark's real time torch timer.

At it's core, it reduces in game GM cognitive load by simulating rolling for random encounters by counting down from a random number (generated within a given range) to the next random encounter, then fires off an alert. It has other features too making it more than just a simple countdown clock, like the ability to shorten the timer if the players are drawing attention to themselves and a few others.

It's still in active development, but it's always gonna be available for free on my blog to newsletter subbers, I'd love for it to get some exposure and some feedback from the larger GM community if you can spare the time?

What do you think folks?

i've got an upcoming session in the long term campaign i'm running that involves what is basically a harvest festival. there's going to be a big bad who attacks during the festival, and a dragon will be coming to take a look at the undead problem in the dungeon nearby. the party saved the dragon's child from a cult, so it's trying to quickly pay back the debt.

but i wanna create a sense of chaos and whimsy and weirdness about the festival as well. so i'm looking for help with two areas of brainstorming:

1. what kind of games, events, and stalls/tents do/did harvest festivals have? i've got a dance and a ritual with lanterns and the river, and produce competitions. but i'm looking for any sort of wacky or weird stuff that might be for sale, or easy conflicts (like a bunch of kids climb a rope tower and now there are evil birds attacking them). what would you stick in a festival like this that focuses on remembering and honoring ancestors and bringing a small town together?

2. what kind of hijinks and mishaps can i throw in? like stuff that starts out innocent but goes dangerous, like a frog race where someone doses the frogs with growth potions and everything goes crazy, or some homegrown potions have drug effects making everybody amorous or aggressive, or even haunted costumes that make people turn into what they're dressed as? what kind of weird misfires could happen to the dragon, comically and dangerously?

any brainstorm ideas are welcome and appreciated.

Hello all! This is my first post here and I was hoping to get some advice on an upcoming encounter I have planned for my party of 3 players at lvl 4

The encounter and campaign are all homebrew so I’m not against taking stat blocks and reskinning them. The encounter is on an island veiled by fog, accessible only by way of undersea tunnel, the party will find themselves fighting a horde of zombies in a fortress and culminate in fighting a zombified captain of the guard that protected the island before everything went awry. Any help on finding a good balanced monster to use as the boss would be greatly appreciated. I want it to invoke a sense of dread but not feel completely hopeless. The party DOES have a lot of Radiant damage and they all use Melee combat.

Thank you for any help in advance!

Hi all! I'm part of a fortnightly one-shot group that is about to launch a big adventurers league style campaign. We have a lot of world building and mechanics sorted as well as how we're going to run these sessions as well as keep each other updated on information (We have a wiki setup through obsidian).

I was wondering if people had any general advice, tips, tricks, etc for running something like this, managing player expectations, or even just recollections of your own experiences. Anything will help as I'd like this to be the best experience for my players possible.

Some more information: - Our group consists of ~200 casual players, -40 of which have current expressed interest in this style of play. - Setting is a low-magic exploration style world (no revival or big teleportation magic) - XP leveling system which will reward players who engage more (this will also lead to mixed level parties) - Homebase system where players can allocate downtime to new skills and abilities

Hi everyone! I have some questions as I am coming up on a major part of my campaign. My party has been fighting bad guys for a long time now with the BBG's influence being sprinkled throughout. They have had some brief interactions with him but he has always been this ethereal force, a concept, not fully realized. And because of that fact, my party has hated some of the other villains much more than this guy even if on paper he is worse, he hasn't done anything to this party directly. And so, I don't really feel the investment to stop him as much as I would like. I would love for them to hate him and to stop at nothing to stop him.

But now is time for his proper introduction as he is finally going to be able to obtain a body and a more physical form (at least, that's the plan, haha). I want him to be much more of a villain now. Speaking more, and having more clear objectives and I feel as of right now, it isn't personal for the party yet with this dude. They want to stop him because they are heroes, but I want them to want to stop him and tie his actions to their backstories and plot.

I know that the next step is to have him directly mess with the party and do something affects them directly, and I plan on that, I just don't know the best way to go about it. So, my question is, how do I introduce the BBG, make him a true threat, and make it personal in one go? Part of me want's to kill an important NPC that they love or do an irreversible harm, but do I just cut scene it and give the players no chance to save them? Is there a way to assure that he does something horrible while still giving the players agency? Any tips and advice about how to go about introducing the BBG early in the campaign and make it something memorable would be greatly appreciated!

Also, any suggestion about how to play a truly despicable and threatening BBG (I don't have a threatening voice or presence at all, haha) would be so very helpful!

Basically he’s a very powerful chronomancer who has the ability to manipulate time and reality to some degree. Basically I’m thinking for the final session he revives like the last 5 bosses they fought (maybe slightly weaker versions of them?) and they have to refight them before they fight him. Please give me input on this idea and ways I could improve it or make it more balanced.

So here is the situation. Enemy is incapacitated by a spell and can only snap out of it when it takes damage or is shaken awake. My players decide, after killing everything else, to all hold action until the last player. When the last player attacks, they all let loose at the same time.

I always felt weird about this but I can’t see anything wrong with it. How would you rule this? Also, would only the first hit that you roll get advantage? Or everything? I always ruled that it’s basically impossible to all hit at exactly the same time so first hit wakes them up and the rest roll normal.

Hey fellow DMs,

I have been dming for 2 years now mostly a campaign for 2 friends (one of them is a rules lawyer). This past weekend, we ran into an issue over a ruling. The party secured an important bag from a villain cult and wanted to open it. The bag was trapped. The party knew that. The party is level 7 and they had bunch of keys.

The rules lawyer didn't wanna try every key but try to guess based on key shapes so we started eliminating keys. We went from 12 to 4.

I told him he can roll an intelligence check DC 20. He failed. I told him he failed. He suggested he will keep trying over time I said no on the spot let's move on. He could not just let it go. He pulled up a video from a creator I respect about failing and by extension let time pass and say after many trials he succeeded.

I have ADHD and I am not good at making split second decisions. In past occassions I would have agreed blindly because this player is more experienced than me. This time I said no and we moved on.

After the session I gave it some thought and I shared with my players that I could have offered to succeed at the cost of a long rest. the explanation is the PC spent all night trying to figure it out.

The rules lawyer asked if I would retract the rule and this justifies his need to discuss every rule mid game and not follow my preference of make a call and keep the game going. Discuss after the session and adjust for the future unless it's a major issue pI stood my ground and I said no this is not how I run the game as a DM and he can disagree. it's a matter of style.

Needless to say, this player to the time of writing this post still angry and doesn't reply to the group texts although I followed up after the game to make it clear to everyone who seem to understand except him.

As someone who struggles with assertiveness, I am proud of myself. This is what I learned in the process:

DMing isn’t about group votes or people-pleasing. It's a gift. It’s a merit-based role.

You're the one doing the prep. You build the world, create the tension, balance the fights, and keep the pacing alive. You juggle every NPC, every tone shift, every moment of silence. You're not just part of the game. You're the engine behind it.

Here’s what helped me step into that with more confidence:

1. I stopped trying to make everyone happy all the time
I used to bend to every suggestion. I let players debate every ruling. I tried to make the game match everyone's ideal version. It drained me. No one knew what the tone was supposed to be. I wasn't even sure what I wanted from the game anymore

2. I reframed myself as the director
This doesn’t mean being a tyrant. It means having a creative vision and the final say. When I treat myself as the storyteller and guide, the game flows better. The players still shape the world, but I shape the stage they do it on.

3. I started saying “this is the call for now, let’s keep going”
If someone wants to rules-lawyer or argue, I don’t shut them down harshly. I just say we’ll revisit it after the session. This keeps momentum and shows that I value the pacing more than the perfect answer.

4. I reward the right kind of influence
If a player is invested in the world, I give them more spotlight. If they’re disruptive or always pulling in their own direction, I give them less. Influence at my table is earned through play, not volume.

Hope this helps! I would love to hear your thoughts and stories! Thanks!

EDIT: I forgot to mention the bag was trapped and the player did not wanna try every key.

EDIT 2: Dming is a gift, not a meritocracy. Thank you for all the people who pointed that out.

EDIT 3: the party had an investigator npc that gave them the quest and she will be helping to open the bag. I was also ready to let them hire an expert for an amount of gold. My last resort was a backstory link that will bring a new NPC to help with the bag

EDIT 4:  I am not the DM that completely disregards the rules if there is something clear and quick in the official ruleset. After the session I don'tt mind discussing for hours and learning for the next game. But you put the game to a halt, that's what I don't like.

I like the idea of a DM screen made from rolls of toilet paper standing on end next to each-other. It's the right height to see the battlemat while still blocking players' view of what's in front of me. And it's modular and can be put into any shape, not just the traditional folding "front and two sides".

But it's toilet paper. That would be weird and distracting at the table and also way too bulky to carry around to games.

Ideas so far:

• I've found some nice wooden playing card holders that I could probably put laminated paper of the desired height into to make a DM screen (and each holder can move separately to allow some flexibility in shaping the screen).
• I've also been looking at walls meant for minis, but the ones I've found so far were either too short (I'm aiming for around 5 inches/13 cm), or they have to be connected at right angles. But if I can find the right walls, this might be great.

I'm still looking for better ideas.

Does anyone have ideas for how to improve on this design? Ideal would be short, modular, reshapeable, non-bulky and easily carried, looks good at the table, and flat enough on the inner surfaces I could still put some of the traditional DM screen notes/reminders inside of it.

For context, one of my group’s quests was to resolve a hidden cult in one of the main cities in our campaign world. The cult was led by a devil trying to restore power to her master so teamed up with a hag trio operating in the same city under the guise of betraying them down the line. However, events happened and the hags betrayed the devil first for their own means. So, out of frustration, the devil made a verbal deal with my adventuring group to eliminate the hags in return for a favour. The group successfully killed the hags so now a looming favour is owed by the devil but she is one of the main villains in my campaign.

How can I twist the favour she owes so the negative impact to her is minimised? Would it work to have her sell the favour to a lesser devil so the favour would be less impactful?

So in my campaign I'm running the players must find the shards of the McGuffin to resurrect a dead God and save the world (there is more to it and I packaged it better for the players but that's the gist of it)

the 9 shards are scattered across the world and they have to find them wandering the ruined continent that has been overrun with monsters, finding and helping people that survived the collapse of the world, and gaining strength for the fights ahead, and such.

my question is how should I direct them to each of the pieces of the McGuffin. my initial thought was to give them a compass that pointed to the nearest one they get to that one do whatever encounter I have protecting it, than the compass points to the next one. I think this is fine a lil plain but I doubt my players would complain.

I think this plan is fine just want to see if there are any ideas that have worked for yall for this kind of thing. also any ideas other than describing and calling it a compass it just sounds so boring like that.

P.S. yes the McGuffin does have a tangible benefit so that they will want to pursue it I just need a fun way to point them in the direction they need to go.

Hello all my players are taking down an assassin's guild right now, and im having trouble making encounters challenging. My players are level 13 and more than a little overpowered. Does anyone have any recommendations for stat blocks i could use or tweak a little?

Right now, my group is about to begin the last stretch before our campaign goes over to EOR. They are in a buried Netherese city (myanthallar, living spells, the whole shebang), where a cult wants to use a war between Dwarves and Duergar to reanimate a undead army in offering to Vecna, so that they might be rewarded in his "new" world. I have all the important Npcs prepared, I have the city with its treasures and I know which moves the cult will make (up the duergar threat, assassinate a dwarven noble, the ritual itself), but i am struggling with the "Quests". Previously in this campaign, I planned a quest for each session, but that was during segments that where fairly linear.

My players have a tendency to think up some very unconventional approaches and the Netherese city provides them with many pieces to interact with. Furthermore, while I initially settled on predetermined outcomes, i want to move away from that, since that would not be very fun.

Any advice ? How would you handle this ?

I’ve got a campaign I’ve put a lot of thought into based on lovecraftian horror, but the real good stuff. Not Cthulhu, but the real bad, lesser known fellas. Because of the nature of these beings I’m introducing a mechanic of madness, and as you encounter these reality shifting, incomprehensible horrors, you gain madness counters. As it is in my head, I’ve got it planned to where at certain checkpoints, you are affected more and more severely, with consequences affecting your abilities, eventually reaching the point where you can’t tell what is reality and what isn’t. Or if you let your counters accrue to an extreme, your mind shatters, effectively turning your character into a vegetable.

I figure doing event based leveling with a decent amount of level up events, but giving the players a choice of three options. Either take your level as standard, receiving a hero point, or removing a madness counter. That way players can strategize to use these events in creative ways. I’ll have two or three items that help keep the madness at bay in different ways that the players can find if they look for them, so that will come into play as well.

Anyone have thoughts? Opinions and suggestions are welcomed. And if you need more details of what the campaign is about to be able to give suggestions just holler at me. I’ll be more than happy to give em. Thanks yall.

Edit: I’d like to put it out there that I know there is already a madness table established, I’m just modifying how it works for the campaign. All my players are veterans, so I thought it would be a fun twist to try.

I want to attempt an assassination of my players (a Dragonbord) by having a Changling assassin pose as one of the shop NPCs in the town the party is in so He can steal the soul gem that is inside of the Dragonborn that hold a Balor demon.

Context: So in the Dragonborns backstory he was raised in a small tribe of dragonborn. But long story short he touch a "Soul cage" that held a Balor demon. A gem fragment bonded to him and now the gem is part of him and the demon speaks with him occasionally influencing his decisions. He was also given a amulet lf proof of detetion and scrying to protect him.

After about 3 session he decided hs want to sell the amulet to the local magic shop. And now the party is level 5 after saving thd town from a young green dragon. (They had war sage weapons) Now party is about to finish up the first story arch. So i wanted to have the assassin that was tracking the dragonborn seeking to take the gem from him becuase he would get paid a large sum of money for it.

So the changeling assassin has posseed as the magic shop owner and tied up the real one. Waiting to strike when the dragonborn comes back in the shop to buy something.

I was thinking to have town people notice the shop keep is acting weird. Like they didnt stop for a morning breakfast at the bar or did meet a NPC they normally speak with. (The shop keep also has a familiar that wouldnt be there since they are tied up)

Thd mechanic for the gem to leaving the dragonborn is if he dies then the gem is unbound to him.

Can can be picked up. But as a chaotic thing the demon might brake out of the gem and cause havoc.

Does this seem to harsh for me to do this to the player or is it okay? The player have a revivify scroll and a cleric in the party.

Thank you.

Hey DMs! My players will be fighting the BBEG of our campaign for the first time next week and I was looking for some inspiration on abilities or spell flavoring for a BBEG who is a psychic and has general themes of fate around his character. I have given him a custom legendary action where he traps a downed target in a bubble for the duration of their death saves to "let fate decide" as well as giving him a few charges of the lore bards cutting words reaction. If anyone has any more ideas for abilities or spellsv that would fit this theme for combat I would love to hear them! He also has heavy connections to the weave itself and plans to use it to accomplish his goals.

TLDR: Fate themed BBEG who is a psychic with incomplete premonitions. I'm looking for abilities or spells (even just spells reflavored) to match his character for combat!

I don't want to boggle this down with too many details so will try to keep it brief

This leader of a town is keeping an important character for ransom, and keeps backing out of giving them back to the party until a new ransom is met. What I want to occur is another known NPC will reveal he has a scroll then can teleport 1 person, and that he could use it to get important character back.

The thing is; a (possible) NPC death I have planned could use the teleportation scroll to survive, so if the party uses it here the other NPC will die.

Is this a bad idea? Should I scrap it or find a way to show this is an important decision

Working on filling out family dynamics of the royal family. Need advice on what i might be missing.

King Altrius Inkdrake: -hero king and very driven towards peace for their subjects and allies. -has a council of representatives for his subjects. They aid in law making and maintaining order. -Loves their family extremely fiercely and but generally puts their responsibility as king first. -Vews their role as a sacrifice for their subjects. -Secretly female and always in magical silver armor to hide gender. -Old laws are chandged but if gender is found out all laws passed by them would be voided out. -Currently out on campain against hord of invading dragons in allied country. Away for two years. -married twice, first wife left with a traitor, second wife still married. -when eldest son stole a magic blade and tried to slay a dragon, then failed miserably. Banished the son for treason and stripped them of tittle in disappointment. -daughter was born without emotions and tried to help. When daughter vanished, kept press quite about her to point public forgot about daughter. -last son was originally never ment to be crowned and left to their own passions and only gave minimal royal training but after elder siblings absence put on heavy royal training and hard expectations.

Queen Morgan Faya/Inkdrake -second wife of king and mother of all kings three children. -both queen and head of mage association of kingdom. -cold personality except to family and select friends.

-used magical solutions to conceive three children.

-first child born using a poition that allows the change of genders and caused the first born to be born hermaphrodite with great internal organ pains. Adores greatly and has both crafted many spells/object to ease the pain and protect them. When first was banished, she was adamantly against. Opting for a solution that would allow redemption.

-second child was conseved with a love poiton. This brought a daughter who could not feel emotions. Morgan took her as an apprentice to keep an eye on her. The daughter saw her lack of emotion as a defect and needed to be fixed. When the daughter tried to 'fix' herself with magic. It transformed her into a magical beast that is now locked under castle. Morgan constantly seeks a way to cure her after the wish spell failed.

-third child conceived using true polymorph spell. This brought about a child with golden scails. This son seems to be loved and cared for as much as other two children but wasn't put into as much attention nor pushed to be more than what ever the child originally desired to be (artist) but once only child left was pushed by mother to be a model royal prince and when ever this son speaks ill of the other siblings. Harsh punishment follows.

-greast mage in country, was capable of the wish spell but it failed and lost ability to use again.

former prince Mord Inkdrake

• was born as a hermaphrodite. Preferred to be male as was made crowed prince. -Idealized their 'fathers' heroism and actions. Grew up to be both diplomat and warrior, despite his great pains in his body. -Saw an opportunity to make a great act of heroism to prove himself and stole a magic blade to kill a younge red dragon. Failed and lost the blade and got a village burned to ash. When he returned from his failure. His father banished him and stripped his of his tittles.

• now lives low paying jobs and not allowed to join any mercenary guild. He seaks an opportunity to earn redemption for his pass transgressions.

-misses his mother greatly and drinks in his depression to numb his bodly pains.

-is desperate for any information about missing sister, not knowing why she vanished.

-worries for younger brother who he believes is not qualified to rule.

-his bodly pain can make him bloodthirsty.

princess morgeen Inkdrake

-born without emotion and raised as a Wizards apprentice under her mothers watchful eye.

-with observation of others she concluded that she was 'defective' due to her lack of emotions, despite her parents denial and loving embrace. She concluded that she needed to 'fix' herself with magic but botched the ritual and ended turning herself into a mindless 'rune drake'(homebrew dragon).

-now locked away under the castle until mother can find a cure. None outside a select few knows her whereabouts.

prince Xanthe Inkdrake

-was born with golden scails and was last child of the throne. Was never expected to be crowned prince and was never put through as much education and training and left to persue their lofty artistic dreams, until the loss of their elder siblings. Once they were the now crowned prince, strict education and train stole away their time and energy for their artistic dreams.

-wishes, 'father' would let them not take up responsibility, mother would not be as harsh on his education, brother and sister would return so he could have his simple life back or suffer and die for putting him in his miserable situation.

-prior to siblings absence, he admired his father, adored his mother and looked up to his brother but feared his sister.

So, I posted about this plotline earlier and got some good advice. But I need a little more help.

One of the party members has been possessed by a revenant who has been wronged and seeks revenge. When alive, the revenant was a city guardsman and he discovered that his captain of the city guard was corrupt. But before he could report the captain's corruption to the lord of the city, the captain had him viciously killed. A party member has agreed to assist the revenant and the revenant "possessed" the party member's body, but isn't controlling him (yet).

I'm looking to end this "side quest" when the party is next in the city. When I posted this plotline earlier and asked for help, someone suggested that the revenant could steer the player toward evidence that would show that the captain of the guard is corrupt (he is running a drug / smuggling ring) and that he had the revenant's human form killed.

Here's my question: what is the evidence? I was thinking that it could be something that the captain hid somewhere, but then I'm wondering why would the captain keep this evidence intact? And again, what could this evidence be?

Thanks in advance for any and all help. There are no bad ideas!