On scrying

 I like scrying a lot. When my players scry on an NPC, it's a great chance to show them some aspect of the characters that I want them to know, but that it wouldn't make sense for them to learn just through interacting with the characters. I usually don't give up big secrets when my players successfully scry. I prefer to leave that up to piecing together clues. But I do like to give hints and clues towards secrets, and information on the social lay of the land for the character they scry on.

Here's a few examples:

PRINCE ABION PELIOTH, PSYCHIC VAMPIRE PRINCE

PART ONE

Abion had the players go on a quest to the Astral Plane, and his psychic powers let him know that they had captured the Skoros Orb, which he wanted. He ambushed the players in his throne room and they escaped, but Abion and his minions didn't tell the players why they did that. I want the players to understand their enemies' motivations, but sometimes it just doesn't make sense for them to scream "I'm betraying you for this reason!" So after they escaped, they scryed on him, and I made up a short scene of Abion on in his throne-room, dressing down his mindflayer vizier for failing to capture the players, and saying something like, "They have the Skoros Orb!! It called to me in the darkness!! I must have it!!" and for good measure, threw in, "No one must know of this, especially my mother......." That way the players have insight into not only why they were kidnapped, but get a little piece of political terrain revealed to them. 

PART TWO

After the players killed Abion's mother, the Queen, and escaped again, they scryed on Abion to see what was up. I had already decided that in case of the Queen's death, Abion would be first in line for the throne, but that his older sister Ordelia considers herself more capable and deserving. I personally don't think this is very relevant to the players at this point, but they wanted to know what was happening, so I made up a scene in the Queen's throne-room: the throne-room is filled with a sea of the Queen's blood (still pouring from her severed neck) while vampire servants try to bail out the tower, and Ordelia and Abion are verbally fencing before the throne. Abion says something like, "When I'm crowned in the morning, finally I'll be able to lead this kingdom to true greatness" and Ordelia says something arch like, "Will you brother? Be careful you do not stumble along the way" or whatever. Again, this is to show the players the immediate after-effects of their actions (tower filled with blood), as well as what will happen if the players don't intervene (Abion crowned king, Ordelia attempting subterfuge to stop him).

THE DEADBOYZ

The players have been scrying on their rival party consistently throughout the campaign, after getting their hands on one of their water bottles. This has typically not turned up very good information -- I want finding the Deadboyz to be pretty tough to find. Once I gave the players a view of an upcoming room where the Deadboyz were making camp: a frozen lake with a barbed wire fence crossing it. This gave them something to look forward to as they explored the dungeon.

Later, I was able to show them a truly bizarre scene: the Deadboyz' rogue cooking a meal in an idyllic cabin, natural sunshine coming through the windows, when their antipaladin enters, covered head to toe in blood and holding a severed head. In the game, they had made camp inside a magic painting which was inside a magic mirror, but at this point the players had no idea what to do with this information. The result is that when the players DID find the magic painting inside the magic mirror, they had a truly excellent a-HA moment as they understood what they had seen.

NO OTHER EXAMPLES SPRING TO MIND

But it's always a good opportunity when the players manage to scry. I don't have to give everything away, but I can give away some very helpful and interesting information, and come up with details to illuminate the characters.