A Game of Ice and Fire, Part 6: "The Voice of God"

Common sense isn't that common...

When you are the GM, creating an adventure or running a pre-made one, it's hard to see why the players would do anything other than is expected of them.  You see all angles and things that seem obvious to you are not readily apparent to the players.  Case in point;

As the group was setting out from Dag's Inn and further along the Gold Road, it had not dawned on them that the sigil of House Trevayne might not be something to display openly, given the encounter they had the previous night.  Here is where you have to use the NPC's as "the Voice of God."  You aren't telling the players what to do, you are playing their common sense.  It's a way to keep the immersion in the game and not just blurt out possible ideas.  Here, the inn keep questioned whether they wanted to travel so openly as members of House Trevayne.  Of course, as somewhat arrogant bannermen of House Lannister, they didn't feel the need to hide their sigil.  They were too proud.  They did have Elan ride ahead of the main party displaying no colors, to try and keep an eye for potential threats.

Their journey turned out to be fairly uneventful.  As expected, they did get plenty of dirty looks and watchful eyes, and the inn they rested at, The Great Stag, gave them a suitably cold welcoming.  Prior to the main group arriving, Elan made the acquaintance of two apparent Dornish people; a man and a woman appearing to be siblings.  They introduced themselves as Ser Armattan and Amberley, members of House Vale in the Reach.  They chatted a bit and once the other party members arrived, they remained friendly, apparently not caring about the rumors of House Trevayne.

After a time, the group turned their attention to another person at the inn, a boisterous, drunken man, spreading lots of coin about who became peculiarly quiet and furtive once he saw the group.  It was here that they found a potential lead in their investigation.  This man, Hamish Flowers, revealed himself, reluctantly, to be the sole surviving member of the mercenaries hired by the Fox Knight, a disgraced knight turned bandit, to murder the House Buckwell smallfolk.  Everyone follow that?  He admitted to killing the other mercenaries in their sleep, and received a big payout from the Fox Knight.  He had no idea who hired the Fox Knight with this job originally, though.

Reason prevailed with Zoren and Elan and they didn't straight murder Hamish.  They knew he would useful in clearing their name, so they just gave him more to drink, a serving wench to seem him to his room and turned in for the night.

The following morning brought a harsh disappointment;  Elan found Hamish dead, throat slit and robbed.  This didn't sit well with Zoren.  He promptly went to the obvious suspect for Hamish's murder...the serving wench.  He burst into her room, forced her to wake, dress, and be interrogated about Hamish's murder.  He did exercise classic Trevayne restraint and just yelled and accused her.  Lucius and Elan inspected both Hamish's room and the serving girl's room, uncovering no murder weapon, no money, and the suggestion that Hamish's murderer entered and exited through the window.

Dissatisfied with the answers they received, the group set out on their final day's travel.  A few hours from King's Landing, Elan's scouting revealed a small group, armed and laying in wait.  Elan passed them by, circled around, and watched them.  As the main group approached, the men charged out, shouting "For House Buckwell!" and attacked.  After a very short combat, the group killed all but one of the ambushers, learning that they were hired by Lord Dominic Buckwell who gave them a letter bearing his seal.  The letter turned out to be a very poor forgery and the description of Lord Buckwell he gave them matched the description Hamish gave of the Fox Knight.  It seemed apparent that these men were just hapless dupes, hired by the Fox Knight to harass House Trevayne.  So of course, they killed the lone survivor.  Classic House Trevayne.