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Crow
2009-01-17, 11:13 AM
I've got a group that's going to be spending some time in the city, and I wanted to offer a good variety of low-level hooks for them. Hopefully they will take one and things can develop from there.

I have four so far.

1. Someone or something has been murdering people in the government district. Victims look as if they have been attacked by a wild animal. In truth, one of the stone gargoyles on the palace has been replaced with a real one.

2. Two thugs come into the inn where the player characters are enjoying a drink and try to rough up the proprieter for not paying his "protection" money.

3. A wealthy merchant just lost a caravan to a band of goblins led by an ogre. The watch is offering a reward for somebody to break up the bandits.

4. A wizard offers a reward for somebody to retrieve a valuable (but mundane) amulet from a deceased noble. The crypt where the noble rests was formerly the haunt of a cabal of Nerull-worshippers which was broken up by the watch. There could still be some nasty surprises left behind.

Fredthefighter
2009-01-17, 11:18 AM
Well, I like the sound of the last two, I'm not overly keen on the first two, but then again, I'm a fan of the classic "go into a dungeon and kill someone" mission. But the idea of the thugs and the gargoyle intrigues me. Go ahead and use whichever hook you want to, as long as the characters don't find it too easy or too hard.

afroakuma
2009-01-17, 11:19 AM
An inept assassin from a major guild has botched his mission. Now gone rogue out of paranoia, his master puts out a bounty on his head with the tacit acknowledgment of the local authorities, as he may prove dangerous to civilians in his panic.

The nobles' quarter is infested with an ethereal filcher, and the local wizards can't be bothered to investigate. (The nobles are too cheap to send for a high-priced wizard). Other planar beings start noticing the ripples of its passage, and may slip through the weave when it does. The combination of a poltergeist-like ravid and the inconvenient nightly felonies of the filcher drive them to seek cheap, amateur help.

ShneekeyTheLost
2009-01-17, 12:24 PM
Local noble is fed up with the infestation of <insert appropriate CR encounter critter here> in the area and has put a bounty on them.

Local druid is upset with town for <insert some reason that only Greenpeace could agree with>. Party is simply caught in the middle. Alternately, druid targets party because they are simply in town at the time.

There are magical manifestations appearing at the Brown Slime Inn. Everything from having the fire on the cooking stoves to blaze up and ruin food to disappearing supplies to a sleet storm in the pantry. Owner is not able to afford the fees the Wizard's Guild would charge. He's willing to offer free meals and free room and board for a month if the party can figure it out. In reality, the pot-scrubber is a budding Sorcerer, and is being abused, which is causing the magical manifestations in self-defense. Kid has no idea what is going on. Party has several options: take kid elsewhere, collect pay for stopping manifestations, everyone's happy. Or, bring in local charitable cause to rain down on the owner for abusing the 'gifted' kid. Or taking it out personally on the owner, in which case they may end up with a brush against the local law.

There's a cheap carnival that just came in. Everyone's talking about how nifty and realistic it is. Party goes to investigate, and it is pure chiccanary and slight of hand, and badly disguised mundane animals. Make it clear "How would anyone call this realistic? This is the worst piece of crap you've ever seen..." until you get to the Imp, who is quite real. And working for the low-level Warlock who has Charm Person as the invocation known.

Lappy9000
2009-01-17, 01:10 PM
Have the PC's meet in either a gathering, or give them something that would cause them to quarrel, drawing them together, preferably in a major city. Proceed to drop the tarrasque into the middle of said city. You don't even need to worry about the typical "Why would this group adventure together?" deal, since their first mission would be to run like hell :smallamused:

EDIT: Oh, you wanted them to stay a while in this city. In that case, you can use the above when you're ready for them to leave.

From there?
*Why is the tarrasque here?!?!?
.....-Evil Wizard?
.....-Problem in the Multiverse?
.....-Tarrasque just got bored?
*Maybe the tarrasque stayed longer than normal.
.....-Why?

Rutskarn
2009-01-17, 01:16 PM
When they're in an inn, have a group of level-one adventurers stride in like they own the place, drink lots of ale, flirt with the staff, try to pump random passerbys for quest hooks, and play dangerous and stupid games with their weapons. Just when they seem annoying, if harmless, one of them either

a.) Accidentally sets fire to the building, and the PCs need to help put it out, rescue someone upstairs, control it or loot the place as their alignments and classes dictate

b.) Purposefully tries to set fire to the building, which makes it more interesting.

c.) Tries to attack one of the adventurers, leading to a fight.

Crow
2009-01-17, 01:16 PM
Have the PC's meet in either a gathering, or give them something that would cause them to quarrel, drawing them together, preferably in a major city. Proceed to drop the tarrasque into the middle of said city. You don't even need to worry about the typical "Why would this group adventure together?" deal, since their first mission would be to run like hell :smallamused:

Unfortunately, the last (defunct) party unleashed the Tarrasque last session. No sense in using him again just yet. =)

I like the magical manifestation idea and the inept assassin one. Good stuff here for the three-ring binder.

Egiam
2009-01-17, 01:27 PM
A friend of the P.C.s (noble) is kidnapped. The brigands give a ransom offer to the father of the "kidnappee" for the (insert powerful magic item here). Outraged, he hires the P.C.s to rescue the "damsel in distress".
Development:
The ransom offer magic item has a history and is much more powerful than first expected. Think an artifact.

Canadian
2009-01-17, 08:01 PM
The city is built around an old excavated open topped dungeon. It is used like a gladiator pit. People are dropped into the "maze" and have to fight monsters and each other. The spectators cheer from the tops of the walls. The blood sport has grown to a huge level of popularity. The whole show is run by an evil wizard. Some people say he found the maze. Others say he created it. Rumors abound as the wizard is rarely seen. There is talk of the maze having a secret purpose hidden by a trap door at it’s center. The purpose: To bring ultimate evil into the world.

Meanwhile... Under the "maze" a giant beast feeds on the blood of all who die in the maze above. A complex series of pipes brings the blood of those slain to the gullet of the beast. With every drop it grows more powerful waiting one day to burst forth and spread evil and death across the land. Once raised to full strength it will be unstoppable.

The players must find a way to stop the beast from reaching full strength. But how do you stop the most popular blood sport on the planet? Many groups have an interest in keeping the sport going: the mafia, animal trappers, promoters, gamblers, wizards, the city guards, and the tax collectors. The clock is ticking. The blood is dripping. Will they bloodshed end in time?

They must hone their skills and gather their strength so they can venture into the maze and find the secret door that leads to the dormant beast.

Or something like that…

Bagera
2009-01-18, 12:33 AM
The party is contracted to guard the prize chicken of a local magical workshop until the chicken races where it will compete and hopefully win prizes for the magical animal husbandry.

Curmudgeon
2009-01-18, 01:20 AM
Guard a large keep/small town against an impending invasion. This will stress the players' intelligence, as they try to make all ground difficult terrain, reinforce walls, & c. using a mix of spells, trickery, and leadership to get the locals to supply labor and materials. Make quick supply runs to stock up on ammunition and healing supplies, on a limited budget. Send out scouts to try to figure out which way the enemy is coming.

Storm Bringer
2009-01-18, 04:37 AM
A major noble is in fear of his life after a criminal organization sent him a 'pay up or die' message. He hires the characters to escort a body double off to a highly visible meeting with the king/duke/patrician, while he skips town out the back door. The players are not told the man they are escorting is a double until after the thieves kill the double in a dramatic fight/chase scene, when the duke thanks them for letting him escape and pays them a little extra to compensate them for being bait.

One of the local churches is in the process of breaking in two over a rift between the two senior clerics. the cause of the feud is purely material (ie no theological dispute) the players are hired by a junior cleric to try and stop the chruch breaking up

Ganurath
2009-01-18, 04:49 AM
In this city, there is something illegal that isn't normally illegal. Having spells in your spellbook from the school of Necromancy and/or Enchantment beyond the rudimentary cantrips, being a sorceror, or worshipping deities in certain alignment ranges all spring to mind.

A travelling merchant coming through town happens to qualify for these illegal activities but is otherwise a (reasonably, depending on what you ban) good person. He doesn't want to (or can't) stop commiting his crime, but at the same time he doesn't want to be imprisoned for being half-human or whatever.

He puts out a job to hire bodyguards because he peddles in magic items that could be useful to the PCs at later levels, but once they sign confidentiality contracts (the magically binding kind in either CSc or CAd) the merchant reveals the true purpose of their employ is to keep his "crime" from being noticed by the authorities for the duration of his stay in the city.

Thane of Fife
2009-01-18, 09:20 AM
Here's a generic link to the plots page (http://www.strolen.com/content.php?page=1) of Strolen's Citadel, full of all sorts of lovely ideas with only a bit of searching.

Here's (http://www.strolen.com/content.php?node=1577) one which looks quite interesting about a 'terrible monster' which has escaped from a circus and is roaming about the wilderness near the city. It is perhaps more interesting in that there are elements of mystery (nobody knows that the animal comes from the circus), and in that the animal is actually relatively harmless and would ideally be captured rather than killed.

Perhaps you could use one of the plot hooks attached to the Mausoleum (http://www.strolen.com/content.php?node=4159) - perhaps some sort of skeletons and zombies and such lurking in the catacombs beneath the tavern.

Or maybe some horrible monster is lurking in the sewers (http://www.strolen.com/content.php?node=190), and has just begun to eat those whose job it would normally be to keep those clean. And when the PCs venture into the muck and filth below the city, how will they react when it turns out to be nothing more than an alligator?