#making inquiries

Sometimes adventures need to dig up some local lore, ask around about a recent event, or otherwise make inquiries about whatever some such is their current subject of inquiry. Role playing asking every shop keep and bar tender in town is tedious, so here’s an alternative. A single day of downtime and a healthy helping of bribery to abridge the process of making Inquiries.

Time and Money: The party or character declares the focus of their inquiries, then spends a full working day (about 8 hours) and at least 10 gold to ask around. The gold represents bribes, gifts, and other expenses. (Have the player spend extra gold in 10 gp increments)

Checks and Results: The character making Inquiries makes a Charisma check, adding a +1 bonus for every 10 gp of gold they spent after the minimum (max of +5). Other characters can lend a hand, granting advantage. If the inquiring character is local or well renowned in the community, this could also grant advantage. The following table can be used to determine the result of the check:

Information: Each piece of information could be one true statement about the subject of inquiry. This might include one of the items on a creature or NPC‘s stat block, the password to a local private club, rumors and reputations, local legends, or other assorted informational breadcrumbs. 

Complications: You can mix up the search for info by adding in a complication that leads to a random encounter, or perhaps into the intrigue of the main plot. If you want to add in a complication as a random encounter, the following table can be used to generate that spicy intrigue.