You have arrived in Bree to find the village abuzz over a recent crime.

Setup: Search the encounter deck for the 5 Suspect enemies and 5 Hideout locations. Randomly select 1 Suspect and 1 Hideout and set them aside out of play, facedown (without looking at them). Build the Investigation deck (see rules) and place it next to the quest deck. Make The Prancing Pony the active location and add 1 Ramshackle Manor to the staging area. Shuffle the encounter deck.

Someone has broken into The Prancing Pony, murdered a guest and made off with the victim's belongings. Barliman Butterbur begs you to find the killer before the trail grows cold.

No more than 4 progress can be placed on this stage each round.

Forced: At the beginning of the quest phase, each player must choose: either raise his threat by 2, or reveal an additional encounter card this phase.