Investigating and Arson Scene

[MasterTempest]

I will soon start running a campaign whose first quarter and maybe a little more will take part in a city, where the PC's will have to deal with lost of mysteries and crimes.
At one such time they will possibly have to investigate the scene of an arson. A few days after some of them (barely?) managed to escape from the very same burning building
They will be low leveled (1-3) and the investigation is optional. The building burning would be a hospital/research laboratory. Newly opened in the city's academy.
Both to treat the ill and injured but also to gather data and make medical advances. It will do so utilizing both magic and conventional medicine, using them, and avoiding the torturous medical methods of the past etc... Some people in the town, were against the funds going to that academic hospital so they decided to sabotage it.
And thus now the party (might) investigate. The investigation itself will be primarily narrative but will involve a few skill checks when deemed necessary

So I have two questions on how to run this.

1st: How do you put a whole building into fire without making yourself greatly noticeable? There is magic int he world lots of it actually, but spell casters themselves are rare. ( With clerics being the rarest of all, one of the reasons hospitals are so important ) But alchemy for example is one of the most thriving forms of science/magic. The guy who did the deed is no caster, but he could have his hands on a few alchemical items to help him see the arson through. He was well funded after all.

Second: What elements could he have left behind, in what forms and amounts? I was already thinking of the PCs finding traces of an alchemic substance in the ashes that is used to make fire extremely hard to put out. What clues can they find and follow after investigating such a crime scene?

[Laserlight]

It's not particularly difficult to get a medieval building to burn. There's a fair amount of wood even in stone structures (remember the Notre Dame fire a few months ago? ) and if it's timber construction, you get the Great Fire of London. Take a bagful of oily rags to the attic and you're set.

[J-H]

1st: How do you put a whole building into fire without making yourself greatly noticeable? There is magic int he world lots of it actually, but spell casters themselves are rare. ( With clerics being the rarest of all, one of the reasons hospitals are so important ) But alchemy for example is one of the most thriving forms of science/magic. The guy who did the deed is no caster, but he could have his hands on a few alchemical items to help him see the arson through. He was well funded after all.

Second: What elements could he have left behind, in what forms and amounts? I was already thinking of the PCs finding traces of an alchemic substance in the ashes that is used to make fire extremely hard to put out. What clues can they find and follow after investigating such a crime scene?

1) You do it when people are asleep. Fire doesn't make that much noise when it's small. Set it in several places at once using an accelerant and matches or lit twigs or a torch. Unless it's an area with a lot of bars or similar establishments, there shouldn't be that many people walking around at 4am.

2) An empty bottle or two from the accelerant. The label is mostly removed, but it's made of a slightly greenish-tinged glass and looks like those used by alchemists. The glass color or shape of the bottle will help them narrow down the supplier.

An un-cracked bottle of alchemists' fire in a less burned part of the building (failed to detonate).

A duplicate key left in a lock, used to get in; or, alternately, lockpicks or something else jammed in some locks to try to lock people inside during the fire.

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[nickl_2000]

Multiple Alchemists fire flasks put into various parts of the building in glass vials.
a small cache of alchemists fire flasks in the center of the building onto top of oil soaked paper, dried bark, or anything else that will but very hot.
A long fuse that will take 10 minutes to burn towards the oil soak items.
Light the fuse and run like a bat out of Avernes.


The heat from the oil soaked item breaks the glass causing a small explosion from the alchemists fire, which triggers a chain reaction from all the other flasks. The building is destroyed within minutes.




As for left over things. Glass shards thrown from the building and chemical burns on stone wall would both tip people off.

[Vogie]

1st: How do you put a whole building into fire without making yourself greatly noticeable?

• Late at night, when most people are asleep
• During a scheduled distraction, such as a parade or other public event on the other side of the city, or something that the BEG set up themselves, like getting a bunch of ne'er-do-wells to attempt a bank robbery in the middle of the day
• Taking advantage of an unscheduled distraction, such as a pirate attack, siege, or other type of raid
• Making it look like something else, such as an accident, a local wildfire spreading, or collateral damage from a scheduled demolition nearby
• Using scientific/alchemical means, such as sabotaging the building materials to make them easy to burn, then secretly adding lightning rods to the roof... then wait for a storm

Second: What elements could he have left behind, in what forms and amounts? What clues can they find and follow after investigating such a crime scene?

This depends largely on the way the BEG burned it down. Ideally, I'd hunt down a couple episodes of one of the umpteen bazillion Police/Fire Department procedural TV shows (Law & Order, Chicago Fire, NCIS, Rescue Me, et cetera) that have an arson episode and just lift it.

The easiest way to make sure they have something to find is to make sure not all of the accelerant/fuel/alchemical items were consumed during the actual act of arson.

[TrashTrash]

To avoid being noticed while setting up, the BEG could simply act like they belong where they are. Wearing a blue collar worker's uniform and having small tidbits of information (names, dates, etc.) to boost their credibility can get them inside, where they can place the fire starters.

Then they could do an odd job as an alibi, such as replacing a bad step on the stairs or repairing a section of leaky roof. This would also help with their plan, since a patch of rough fresh wood will catch faster than water-damaged or smooth wood. The more surface area exposed, the better burning. Sand the step a little, but not all the way; leave the new shingle splintery on the backside.


If you're working with alchemical elements some ingredients may leave telltale signs, like pale ash where the bottle broke or an odd smell mixed with the smoke.

A lot of elements (copper, potassium, etc.) give off weirdly colored flames when they burn, so eyewitness accounts of oddly colored patches of flame can give insight into specific chemicals used as accelerants or "matches."


As for the makeup of the building, if it's an older, wooden building it'll go up fairly quick with the help of the fuels presumably used in the incident. The wood will be dry and the furniture will have varnish of some sort on it that will also burn. If it's a stony building or of newer construction, there will need to be more preparation.
Stone won't burn, obviously, so the fire would need to be concentrated on areas with high flammability to avoid wasting effort and resources.
New wood, while usually rougher than old, time-worn wood, will take more prep because it's most likely still "wet." The moisture from the wood itself will hinder the flame from growing quickly like it'd need to, so the fire would have to be hot enough to drive out some of that before the wood will catch. However, if it's pitchy wood like pine or cedar, the resin will explode and burn well.