A Confession in Red

A courtesan is dead in the one room where nobody dies. She was not killed there.

Odette Roux was found this morning in the sanctuary chamber of the House of Red Vows, a priest's prayer cord wound round her throat. Someone carried her up three floors and staged the strangling, and that someone is not her killer. Madame Lirael gives you six hours to name the murderer before the Church suspends sanctuary and takes the case. The Church already has its suspects. It is wrong.

A Confession in Red is a free noir murder-mystery one-shot for 5e — written to the 2024 rules, playable with 2014 without conversion — for 4–5 characters of levels 5–7, in one 3–4 hour session. No sourcebook required: a half-page primer covers every setting idea the scenario uses.

Built to Be Run, Not Read

The central deduction is never locked behind a die roll: three separate routes lead to it. The scenes are situations, not a sequence, and the GM tools assume your players will take them out of order.

• A one-page Short Version of who did what
• A master clock of the night, to the minute, that every clue in the book agrees with
• A 12-clue index: what it is, where it is, what check finds it, what it points at
• An "If the players… then…" table and six moves for when the table stalls
• Five pre-generated characters, each tied to the night of the murder; one of them already knows the body was moved
• Four handouts: the victim's journal, a page of the House's door book, a seditious pamphlet, four lines of poetry
• Four endings. The final choice is not whether to tell the truth, but which true thing to say

Velnaris

The adventure is set in Velnaris, City of Temptation: a gothic city where courtesans hold the secrets of the powerful and something old grieves under the streets. The full city is in the Velnaris sourcebook; this adventure stands on its own.

Tone & Content

Noir investigation, no explicit content. Content notes: the body of a murdered young woman, described at the scene; suicidal ideation in a supporting character; institutional persecution of a political minority. Player safety guidance included.

More in the Line

Player's Guide to Velnaris (free) · Heroes of Velnaris (free pregens) · Courtesans of Velnaris (GM) · Velnaris: The Complete Edition.

This title contains AI-assisted content (text development and interior/cover artwork).

Compatible with fifth edition. Includes material from SRD 5.2.1, licensed under CC BY 4.0. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Wizards of the Coast.