Demonborn d100 Playtest: The Clever Fox

[Gnomes2169]

Pointing at Nomis, the mayor said, "We've looked at it, but haven't been able to determine a pattern. They started like the Red Foxes in the past; the first two times he struck he announced his intentions ahead of time with an anonymous paper pasted to the fountain, though who he chose was rather strange, now that I think about it." Tapping his glass of brandy, he goes to the map of the town and points at two parts on near-opposite ends of town. "Normally a new Red Fox will try for one of the larger noble houses, the whole point is the spectacle and daring, after all, but this one started with two minor houses. The first one was a newly landed aristocratic house on the eastern end of town, and the Fox stole from them bloodlessly. The second was an old family that had fallen from high status when they defaulted on too many loans, without an heir to their name... not only were their valuables taken, but the family line was ended and their property burnt down."

Frowning, he begins pointing at various streets and areas around the town. "Since then, they've stopped following the formula and instead picked victims seemingly at random. Iron carts, merchants staying late in the markets, loggers in the Silvervine plots, fishmongers, people wandering through an alley, the only thing they don't seem interested in is live merchandise, like cattle or chickens. Too pedestrian for them, perhaps?"

"And I haven't heard reports of anyone being hit twice by this new Fox. In fact, since the incident with the Vanderbilts, I haven't gotten a report that he's targeted any nobles at all. His crime spree has changed from larceny to banditry, though we don't know exactly why. Any noble houses that could afford to hire more guards have done so and are ready to protect their neighbors, so he might just be going after softer targets?"

Spoiler: Nomis's Skullduggery roll

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From what he's describing, whoever is running this operation is either extremely clever and using their random hits to disguise what they are really after... or they're new to this and don't actually know what they're doing, and just doing what they are doing to cause general mayhem. There might be other possibilities, but from the information you have, those seem like the most likely situations.