The Dublin Murder Squad by Tana French -review/inspiration

Over the past few months I’ve been reading the excellent Dublin Murder Squad novel series by Tana French

Unlikely most crime fiction, each novel is told in a first-person point of view of a different detective (except The Secret Place which is half flashbacks told in third person). However, the protagonists aren’t isolated - for example,  the main character in The Likeness is the partner of the lead in Into The Woods. And the lead in Faithful Place has a significant role in a couple of the other books.

Each story has a crime that has a personal connection to the detective - they all end up changed in some way. And the stories don’t have happy endings that are tied up in a neat bow.

However, the main draw is the writing. I really felt engaged with the characters and plots and have read them all at a rapid pace (at least rapid for me lately).

Finally, from a Role-Playing Game point of view most of the books have ideas that you could steal for investigation or horror scenarios. Why is there a large animal trap in the attic of the house where a murder occurred? What actually happened to those kids that disappeared in the woods? Why does the murder victim have the fake identity of an undercover cop?

NDT Session 35: A family reunion

 After deciding there were nothing further to explore in the temple the group decided to leave to find if the Traldar or Hutaakans had the key to the treasure room.

However, outside a different band awaited - the Iron Ring, including a mage who looked very similar to Golthar and the mysterious dark haired priestess who had been following them.

It appeared Stephan had been somehow coerced into aiding them but on admitting that he failed to find the treasure he collapsed holding his head and screaming.

After a brief negotiation where neither side agreed to surrender a battle started. Things went well for the party as a fire ball and a hasted Ham ploughed through most of the evil slavers forces. However Rosie was unable to damage a bunch of wererats and Ham was stopped in his tracks by the dark haired priestess who suddenly shapeshifted into his missing ‘wife’ Keothi, the Goliath. 

The reunion was not a happy one Keothi heaped abuse on Ham saying he wasn’t really married to her and he responded by beating her unconscious with the flat of his sword.

The rest of the Iron Ring members were either dead, or had surrendered or fled. Angus and Rosie had been badly bitten and Stephan had been stabilised.

However, any questioning of Keothi was put on hold by the bulk of the Traldar warriors arriving to ‘request’ that the party enter the pit in the temple to deal with Karteoba. 

The PCs managed to convince them they need to rest overnight but they awoke to find themselves in the cage over the pit…

DM notes: this entire battle was sprung off of Ham and Rosie’s back-story (and also because they didn’t hang around in Threshold to meet the Iron Ring there) and seemed to work quite well (well not combat wise which was a cakewalk really but that wasn’t the point).

I’m not sure about my railroad to the finale afterwards… the PCs (2 of them on the way to becoming evil wererats ) now want to get revenge on the Traldar.

NDT Session 34: Wraith? Fine…

 Int. Temple of Pflaar

The trap on the secret door was removed and the party moved along the passageway beyond. At the end was a corpse collapsed in a doorway to a room. Before this could be examined a spirit rose from it and attacked Rosie who was at the front.

After pushing the wraith into the room the party were able to finish it off but not before Rosie had been badly drained of health.

The corpse was holding the golden bowl for the ceremony, which the party returned to the main temple to perform. 

The ritual had some effect but exactly what remained to be seen so the party ventured into other parts of the temple. 

In some side chambers they found some recently collapsed corpses and skeletons. The ceremony seemed to have stopped the undead. They also found information about the history of the Hutakaan and the Traldar. 

Eventually they found a deep crypt with a conceal tunnel that lead deeper underground to room both a barred off view above a large cavern. The party used dancing lights and namfoodle’s familiar to determine that this was where the large pit in the temple above ended up.

TBC

NDT33: Temple of Pflaar Room Hire. Friday: Fight Club

 Int. Temple of Pflaar

The party began to explore the main room of the temple. 

Firstly, they approached the altar. Unfortunately, the bowl for the ritual was missing. As Rosie examined the altar closely 4 statues sprang to life and moved to attack. The statues were tough to kill be were eventually defeated.

The PCs then inspected the pit and its surrounding flames. The actual pit was enshrouded in darkness so Namfoodle prepared to cast Detect Magic. However, Xianti decided to throw a stone into it. Almost immediately an ooze slithered out to attack her. Thus was swiftly killed but further oozes followed it. However, Ham was prepared and they were all slain rapidly. 

But before they could have much respite a group of skeletons and zombies emerged from some side chambers and moved to attack. They were fairly rapidly dealt with but the constant battles were wearing the party down.

Namfoodle’s spell revealed that the flames weren’t magical but the darkness was. It also revealed a magically sealed secret door that seemed to require a special key.

The group decided to investigate the rooms the undead had come from. Both seemed to be robing rooms but the second also had three hideous ghouls in.

They proved to be a fairly tough fight and only Xianti’s cure spell saved Ham from having to make death saves.

After these ghouls were defeated Namfoodle’s spell detected another secret door in this robing room but this one had a magical trap on. The party decided to barricade themselves in the other room to have a quick rest before dealing with the trap.

TBC

DM notes: we are approaching some sort of conclusion although I’m not sure how many sessions we have left now.

NDT Session 32: Temple of Boom

 Ext. Lost valley of Hutaaka

The party decided they couldn’t trust either the Traldar or the Hutaakans so spent the night travelling back to the temple to stop the undead.

Whilst they were resting outside a group of Traldar arrived and after some discussion informed the PCs they would need to collect some water from a ‘singing pool’ to pour into a bowl on the alter to stop the undead.

The group sped off to the pool, and after a brief fight with some arachnids, collected some water and headed back.

The next day they approached the temple. After breaking down the main doors they found a vestibule full of skeletons and zombies. These were swiftly dispatched by a Namfoodle and the group could enter the main part of the temple. The most striking sight was a large pit surrounded by flames. 

The group prepared to explore

TBC

NDT session 31: Are you the bad guys?

 Ext Lost Valley of Hutaaka

We had left things with the party being accused of murdering some men. The party quickly pointed out the evidence that suggested others were involved so the lizard riders determined that they had been killed by “The Mutts” and asked the party to help track them down.

The party, believing the attackers to be gnolls readily agreed and followed some tracks that led towards the attackers, who were revealed to be jackal headed men not gnolls after all. Despite this the party aided the humans (who called themselves the Traldar) to rapidly defeat their enemies.

The party then accompanied the Traldar back to their village (Ronkan). The Traldar leader told them a tale of how the had been enslaved by the ‘Mutts’ (or less offensively The Hutaakan) but had risen up so the Hutaakan’s had released a load of undead and worse to attack them.

Overnight the village was attacked by undead and a number of corpses were cremated in the morning.

Later some scouts returned reporting that the Hutaakan priests were preparing a ritual that night… possibly to summon more undead. As the Traldar were afraid of the dark they asked the PCs for help offering some gems for payment.

By the time the party arrived it was already dark and they were surprised to see the Hutaakan’s fighting off some undead. They decided to talk to them and were told a different story - the Traldar were ‘Wreckers’ who had rejected the Hutaakan’s benevolent rule and had more recently managed to drive the Hutaakan’s from their temple, which had caused the plague of undead. 

They said the ceremony they were performing was meant to stop the undead and they would discuss things further when it was completed. However, the party’s interest was piqued as they thought the temple may be where there was treasure to be found.

TBC

NDT Session 30: Road to nowhere

 Ext. Black Peak mountains

At the bottom of the gorge a lizard was attempting to attack the party but was quickly dispatched. Rosie entered its disgusting lair but discover nothing of worth.

After successfully negotiating the gorge they continued on until they came to another collapsed bridge that would have led to a grand gateway. This gorge was slightly easier to climb and they quickly regrouped by the gates.

Finding no easy access, Bear Rosie helped the rest climb up onto the wall above the gates disturbing some ravens in the process. They spotted some statues the other side but were able to bypass any danger as they descended. Stopping only to unbar the gate they continued onwards.

The path descended into a large valley in the mountains. This proved to be an eerie place with little wildlife. They came across a ruined and abandoned village and set-up camp in a deserted building. 

Their rest was not interrupted but during the night they spotted some undead - zombies and skeletons - acting in odd ways but not threatening.

The next morning Rosie felt sick, possibly picking up some illness in the lizard lair. They started exploring the valley but found only more ruins. It seemed that some places had been destroyed deliberately. They found some odd shaped footprints but no sign of undead during the day. Also no sign of this fabled treasure.

They camped in another ruin and again spotted the undead, some seem to be praying, others acting like they were at work. Even more oddly some of the undead had jackal skulls or heads instead of human features.

The next day Rosie felt better again and they continued onwards walking past a large lake.

 Soon after they came to another ruined village, which contained 3 recently killed humans. As they took in this scene a group of men riding on the back of giant lizards approached who were under the impression that the party had killed their kinsmen.

TBC

DM notes: this was the least satisfying session so far for me as nothing much happened really. However, things should pick up next week…