I'm having troubles thinking up of some adventures for my party.

[GorinichSerpant]

So I'm DMing for effectively the first time and have trouble coming up with adventure hooks for my party.

The idea for this campaign is that the our bheros villeins are a travelling circus. All the characters are evil and the circus is a dark and sinister. Like something our of a Tim Burton movie.

The party consists of the following evil doers:
-A Gnome Rogue who had a high elf lover, the two broke up and eventually the high elf will become a Oath of Vengeance Paladin who's main goal is to hunt down this gnome and bring him to justice. He will be a stage magician for the show.
-A (homebrewed) Bear Fighter who comes from a tribe of bear people that choose when they start at their adulthood, do they become completely humans or completely bears. This character choose both and ran away to be a mercenary, now the clan is hunting him. He is going to one of those bears that ride on a unicycle and do human things to amaze the audience.
-A undead fighter who died as a solider in a war against high elves. And is biased against them. He will become a clown.
-A transvestite Dragonborn Rogue, not much else to say. Not sure what she/he would do during the show, haven't asked the player on that.
-A drow Wizard that plans to become a necromancer and is also a dancer and looking for true love.
-A human fighter who has some clever backstory the player hasn't told me yet. He will be the ring master and wield a signature whip.

The NPCs I've intoduced so far are, they are using code names becouse I'm bad at coming up with names.:
-Lord Blue, a wizard in a blue pinstripe suit who covers his horrid scars and burns with bandages all over his body, and his face with a mask that depicts a classic representation of a wizard. The mask is also blue of course. He is the proprietor of the circus, the real purpose of which is to assassinate to kill a very powerful individual. But before doing that, the party must follow a map around the land to collect very specific magical artifacts so that powerful individual can actually be beat.
He is in fact Vecna, it's hard to see the lack of an eye behind that scar tissue and he has a prosthetic hand so people can't put two and two together. He is currently in a weakened state and is using the PCs to gain back his power. The powerful individual is the one who brought him down and he can't except that. As you may guess both the eye and the hand of Vecna are artifacts on the map.
-Tailor, he is a a Drow who's a mundane surgeon that is there because none of the PCs choose to play a healer. I decided to make this a plot point that Lord Blue didn't want any divine magic users on board because the powerful individual has connections with the divine, and Lord Blue wants to surprise him with an attack that he can't trace threw his network of divine informants. Tailor is not only their surgeon, but also their cook, tailor and maker of Frankenstein like horrors for the freak-show part of the circus and brute muscle. Tailor being an evil scientist with no respect for life, keeps his beasts in check with intimidation and high voltage.
-Igor, he is Lord Blue's butler. If you've heard of the Igors from the Discworld novels, he's basically that but also a kobold. All the logistics of setting up the tents, managing the ticket booth, feeding the mutilated stitched together animals are going to be hand-waved and handled by Igor. Even if one kobold shouldn't be able to do that by himself.

I know that at one point the High Elven Paladin is going to organize an opposing group of adventures, Nale style once he finds out would who the Gnome is working with. Becouse that sounds fun.

However I can't think of a good starting adventure, what would be the logical reason for a circus, what most of the artifacts are and who the powerful individual will be. Does anyone have any ideas?

[Freelance GM]

So I'm DMing for effectively the first time and have trouble coming up with adventure hooks for my party.

The idea for this campaign is that the our bheros villeins are a travelling circus. All the characters are evil and the circus is a dark and sinister. Like something our of a Tim Burton movie.

The party consists of the following evil doers:
-A Gnome Rogue who had a high elf lover, the two broke up and eventually the high elf will become a Oath of Vengeance Paladin who's main goal is to hunt down this gnome and bring him to justice. He will be a stage magician for the show.
-A (homebrewed) Bear Fighter who comes from a tribe of bear people that choose when they start at their adulthood, do they become completely humans or completely bears. This character choose both and ran away to be a mercenary, now the clan is hunting him. He is going to one of those bears that ride on a unicycle and do human things to amaze the audience.
-A undead fighter who died as a solider in a war against high elves. And is biased against them. He will become a clown.
-A transvestite Dragonborn Rogue, not much else to say. Not sure what she/he would do during the show, haven't asked the player on that.
-A drow Wizard that plans to become a necromancer and is also a dancer and looking for true love.
-A human fighter who has some clever backstory the player hasn't told me yet. He will be the ring master and wield a signature whip.

The NPCs I've intoduced so far are, they are using code names becouse I'm bad at coming up with names.:
-Lord Blue, a wizard in a blue pinstripe suit who covers his horrid scars and burns with bandages all over his body, and his face with a mask that depicts a classic representation of a wizard. The mask is also blue of course. He is the proprietor of the circus, the real purpose of which is to assassinate to kill a very powerful individual. But before doing that, the party must follow a map around the land to collect very specific magical artifacts so that powerful individual can actually be beat.
He is in fact Vecna, it's hard to see the lack of an eye behind that scar tissue and he has a prosthetic hand so people can't put two and two together. He is currently in a weakened state and is using the PCs to gain back his power. The powerful individual is the one who brought him down and he can't except that. As you may guess both the eye and the hand of Vecna are artifacts on the map.
-Tailor, he is a a Drow who's a mundane surgeon that is there because none of the PCs choose to play a healer. I decided to make this a plot point that Lord Blue didn't want any divine magic users on board because the powerful individual has connections with the divine, and Lord Blue wants to surprise him with an attack that he can't trace threw his network of divine informants. Tailor is not only their surgeon, but also their cook, tailor and maker of Frankenstein like horrors for the freak-show part of the circus and brute muscle. Tailor being an evil scientist with no respect for life, keeps his beasts in check with intimidation and high voltage.
-Igor, he is Lord Blue's butler. If you've heard of the Igors from the Discworld novels, he's basically that but also a kobold. All the logistics of setting up the tents, managing the ticket booth, feeding the mutilated stitched together animals are going to be hand-waved and handled by Igor. Even if one kobold shouldn't be able to do that by himself.

I know that at one point the High Elven Paladin is going to organize an opposing group of adventures, Nale style once he finds out would who the Gnome is working with. Becouse that sounds fun.

However I can't think of a good starting adventure, what would be the logical reason for a circus, what most of the artifacts are and who the powerful individual will be. Does anyone have any ideas?

You could always turn back the clock a bit, and start the game with Lord Blue bringing them all together.

They may not start out as part of the circus, but an adventure forces them to pass through it/steal from it/hide in it, and at the end Lord Blue offers them a "more or less permanent position."

The main thing is that it sounds like this is going to be a 3-way conflict. There's two groups of enemies: "good guys" hunting down the party for their evil deeds, and the bad guys the party, in turn, are sent after by Lord Blue. However the campaign starts needs to introduce both sides, and establish at least a basic idea of their goals and the party's.

Maybe they're all looking for the same artifact, initially? The weakest of the plot-centric ones. The PC's are asked to retrieve it by someone they know and trust (a little) from their backstories (a friend of the Ringleader?), who claims to have gotten into a bit of trouble that stealing the artifact will resolve. The party goes to steal the artifact, clash with agents of the Powerful Individual, and cause enough chaos and destruction to get attention from the future Rivals of the party.
In the aftermath of the conflict, the PC's either have the artifact or they don't, but their ally is killed while they're out questing. At the very end, Lord Blue shows up Nick Fury style, saying he could use "freaks with your talents." From there, you can lead into the rest of the campaign.

[GorinichSerpant]

You could always turn back the clock a bit, and start the game with Lord Blue bringing them all together.

They may not start out as part of the circus, but an adventure forces them to pass through it/steal from it/hide in it, and at the end Lord Blue offers them a "more or less permanent position."

The main thing is that it sounds like this is going to be a 3-way conflict. There's two groups of enemies: "good guys" hunting down the party for their evil deeds, and the bad guys the party, in turn, are sent after by Lord Blue. However the campaign starts needs to introduce both sides, and establish at least a basic idea of their goals and the party's.

Maybe they're all looking for the same artifact, initially? The weakest of the plot-centric ones. The PC's are asked to retrieve it by someone they know and trust (a little) from their backstories (a friend of the Ringleader?), who claims to have gotten into a bit of trouble that stealing the artifact will resolve. The party goes to steal the artifact, clash with agents of the Powerful Individual, and cause enough chaos and destruction to get attention from the future Rivals of the party.
In the aftermath of the conflict, the PC's either have the artifact or they don't, but their ally is killed while they're out questing. At the very end, Lord Blue shows up Nick Fury style, saying he could use "freaks with your talents." From there, you can lead into the rest of the campaign.

I already had the first session, in which Lord Blue invited them all to his mansion, introduced himself Tailor and Igor, and told them his plan. Specifically that they are hired to raid a set of artifacts, use them to kill someone "who you don't need to know at the moment", and do it all under the guise of a Circus. Lord Blue said that he picked them exactly because of the "freaks with your talents" idea. Then Tailor had them go out and catch a giant toad, which they successfully did and the session ended.

While I can't exactly use your idea now, thanks for bringing the fact that two opponents need to be introduced. Maybe I could have them go to the first artifact now, which leads to the run-in with the good-party and the Agents.

[Feldarove]

I think you could have a session early on where they are forced to perform their show. To you know...keep their cover. A lot of townsfolk are interested, and some are worried/horrified. They do the show and camp outside of town. A band of angry townies (with some thugs or bandits or whatever) come out to burn down/take out the group of freaks.

You could have them use skill checks early on to perform the show and their parts, and then combat later on.

At some point I think it would be fun, if another group of freaks starts mimicing their show, and your group decides to take them out.

I think you could have little sidequests where Lord Blue is having the PCs "take care" of some do-gooder that just rubs Lord Blue the wrong way.

As there is a lot of hostility with many of the PCs backgrounds, you could plan numerous sessions around dealing with the past coming back up for a certain PC, and the other's help eliminate it.

[Frenth Alunril]

I find it best to make it clear what they want, and who has it, then give them what they expect to find when they go looking for what they think will help them find what they are after.

It's confusing, but if you say, "magic cake is in the firehouse" they will generate crazy ideas like, "let's burn down the mill, then the firehouse will be empty" or "I know the fire chief's daughter, let's kidnap her and ask for the cake for ransom" or "Billy, the best firefighter died last Tuesday, let's match his zombie in there to steal the cake, they won't stop him!"

Just be prepared to run with wild things and be ready to go where they lead you. After all, railroads go two directions.

[KiltieMacPipes]

Wait... they're going after KAS?!? Ambitious, but I guess they did get the job from freakin' Vecna.

I played in a one-shot game based around a circus, and the best part of it was having to come up with the show and making the checks for it with the crowd's mood fluctuating based on the results. All fun and games until the halfling decided to be fired out of a cannon despite no one knowing anything about explosives. The DM really wanted him not to do it, but wasn't willing to just tell him no. We, the players, told him no repeatedly, but he'd not listen and since we were in the middle of a performance we couldn't just stop him.

He botched and sprayed the crowd with his remains. There was a huge riot and half the town burned down...

Ah, good times.

[GorinichSerpant]

Who is Kas? And how what led you to believe that he was the "important individual"?A quick Google search has informed me who he is, and it probably would make sense that he'd be the individual. However I was thinking that the individual would be a "Good Guy" who's got some connection to the divine. I'm not actually using Greyhawk, just decided it would be cool to throw in Vecna's eye and hand along with Vecna himself.

Speaking of which I came up with Lord Blue before it occurred to me that it would be cool to make him turn out to be Vecna. And I didn't come up with who that powerful individual would be.