Detect Treasure!

detect plot devices

Every player's backstory is a holy grail, not to be amended by man, nor beast. I mean, they know their own character best, right? Except their backstories are from their own point of view.

Share a story when the GM or another player revealed something the Player Character specifically thought or knew, but the truth was something else entirely.

In one of my games one player was an orphan who had been abandoned by his mother. I had it revealed that she had actually died giving birth after running away from her abusive drugdealer husband.

The woman who raised him and taught him to fight was in fact his aunt, she hide this all from him out of guilty for what happened to her sister.

I had a character, a Revenant(sentient non-evil undead) Ex-Paladin. His backstory briefly detailed the life he had before he died(several hundred years pass between him dying and getting back up) including a wife with a kid on the way, and his appearance included several biological quirks including hair that resisted long-term change(cut it and it grows back to prior length within the day, but otherwise doesn't grow). One of the defining personality traits was his desire to re-establish his connection with his deity so that when he died he would be reunited with his family.

The DM starts my solo portion of the campaign(it was run by forum) with a haircut and styling by an all-powerful DMPC who then plops his wife and son's spirit in front of him for a reunion. The entire thing smacked of 'Ah, so I see you have defining character traits and motivations. Here, let me resolve those right now so they don't interfere with my story'. The entire thing felt creepy and disrespectful.

Aren't revenents mainly born out of revenge or something? I guess you could have been using a different version though. That sucks that he cut your personal story short though. Or did he? What happened with that?

Fireball. Get rid of all that pesky grass.

Detect hidden doors would have probably worked.

about half the the divination School. :P

Detect Magic usually works for some unexplained reason history of dm's who treat detect magic as a compass spell XD probally playing in too many high magic settings

that or magic map.

How about silence?

He doesn't know about it. The Marines made him an offer or Arlong did... I can't remember this part of the anime/manga, so assuming it is similar to them then the same holds true.
And he knows about the money but does not know why Nami has it.

well, i can think of two spells off the top of my head, both of which are even low level. one is the good old first level detect metal spell. the second spell i dont think would work since well, it would involve cutting a piece off Nami's corpse to to create a map that reveals the locations of any valuables that creature knew about while still alive.
[that spell is extremely nice in finding those pesky hidden dragon hordes the DM wants to keep away from you.]

Locate Object
Wiz2/Clr3
The treasure hunter's goggles specifically look for 100 or more coins in a small location.
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Also, I believe Nojiko told Gen. Or he overheard on some occasion.

Any player should be used to and know that a GM/DM/MC/ST/What-Have-You referencing your character's backstory is possibly going to happen at any point in a game when you visit home or someplace related to it. As a player, you should also be used to minor tweaks such as authority figures - i.e. teachers, parents, mentors, mystical kung fu masters - having insight into your character that you originally were trying to hide.

After all, it makes for such a better touching moment when that authority figure is dying at the hands of the villain and their final words to you are "I knew your secret."

They should have dog familiar trained to smell the scent of Money paper.

Easy, Spontaneous Search. Or locate object, perhaps.