Help me with non-combat adventures for a city...

[Dust]

We're playing 4e, and after a few rough and grueling months of trekking through a hostile desert, with treasure and danger at every turn, the PCs have finally come to a glorious city. The Eladrin capital kingdom is half-situated in the feywild, a 'point of light' in an otherwise dark campaign.

I'd like to give them a respite from the nonstop battles for a single game session, but I'm terribly bad at occupying PCs with non-combat sidequests. Here's the general situation of the city. Tell me, how would you develop this into a full, conflict-less game session? There's so many hooks here, I just don't know which way to go with it.



The King, whilst kind and just, is losing his desire to rule after the death of his wife (murdered, in fact, by a BBEG yet to be introduced, only hinted at). He would very much like to see one of his twin daughters marry and take the throne, and thus they have both been very preoccupied with a nonstop chain of would-be suitors for the past year. Several of the suitors are probably at the point where they're willing to start getting reckless or ridiculous to get the princesses' attention. One of the twin daughters is a wizard PC, the other is an NPC.
_
The king employs a blatantly evil vizier, complete with twirled goatee, who has shown great interest in several of the books the wizard PC brought back from a dead god's tomb/necropolis out in the desert. They likely contain spells dealing with life and death. The vizier originally taught the PC wizard magic before she decided she didn't like his methods.
_
The party is on the run from a very angry, very evil, very smart former employer whom they essentially robbed. He hired them for a task and return him a single item, which they decided to keep. The employer, who we'll call Stone, has a great deal of wealth at his disposal but can't hold his own if it cames down to a physical fight.
_


I'll add more if I think of them, but that should serve as a start. I'm flexible with the city and the surroundings. Thanks in advance, guys!

[Sipex]

It's a trope but PCs love it.

'Catch that thief!'
- Catch the thief, it's pretty simple
- Allow your PCs to give open chase or sneak after the thief using the appropriate checks.

[tahu88810]

1. The suitors cause a variety of problems must be solved in ways other than combat. Perhaps the PCs need to prevent a duel from taking place between two of them, perhaps one is a thief, and perhaps a fourth is actually a run-away who they must convince to return home.
2. The vizier recognizes the power/potential in the wizard PC, and begins to make overtures to her in an attempt to win back her favor and gain access to the books. Perhaps he even goes so far as to become her potential suitor (and being the appointed vizier of the king, perhaps her father isn't wholly opposed to the idea?). This cannot be dealt with by outright murdering the vizier, obviously.
3. The former employer has hired an assassin to track down the party. This assassin is part of a secret underground cult which worships a god of fear and fate. They have two main tenants: Every victim has a chance to escape (however narrow, or nearly impossible to see), and every victim is given ample warning. This warning is in the form of mind-games, subtle threats, and the like meant to frighten the intended victim. The party must investigate (without necessarily resorting to violence) to figure out why, say, a body-less horse found its way into one of their beds last night.

[Jastermereel]

While I can't vouch directly for the adventure/encounter, I ran a game where I adapted a masquerade ball "Whispers Of The Vampire's Blade" to my campaign's situation. Weapons were (mostly) confiscated at the door and the point was to gather information, ideally of the incriminating kind. While a small scuffle eventually broke out, the PCs fled rather than really fight. For details, see Session 8/9 (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=9798844).

The encounter can be fairly complex with lots of guests having different agendas, different vantage points for eavesdropping, or even one of the major players making their move in such a way that acting with brute force would only serve to turn bystanders against the PCs.

I don't know your party's composition, but be sure to have a way for any combat focused types to contribute. A rogue can sneak, a wizard can manipulate the surroundings, a bard can schmooze, but a fighter might have a hard time feeling useful and there's few things as dangerous in a high-society party as a bored barbarian.