Lookin for Hooks!

[MintyNinja]

I have a small frontier town on the bank of a river and it's the next settlement in the way of my players. I'm just looking for plot-hooks to set in their way so that they don't feel it's just a placeholder town.

Players are level 3, might be level 4 before they arrive but it's a maybe. They're most likely signed on to an Adventuring Guild by this point, as well.

I'll answer whatever questions come up and bring them to this post.

Thanks!

[Zilong]

https://is5-ssl.mzstatic.com/image/thumb/Video/v4/d4/97/01/d49701cf-84f1-dc2f-776d-9d1ee72f31c3/ticket.bimtynlr.jpg/268x0w.jpg

More seriously, kobolds who run the waste/sewage/whatever go on strike or disappear and trash is piling up faster than people know what to do with.

Good old river troll or hag who is kidnapping and eating people.

A local festival to honor the river god/spirit is taking place and thieves/ thugs are robbing people or planning on hijacking it in some way.

Fey tricksters like nymphs or naiads are generally messing with people.

[Imbalance]

Fishing derby. Prize is an enchanted trident. Sahaugin are strictly catch-and-release.

Drought. Low river spawns unprecedented mosquito hatch, disease rate. Players potentially endure sickness while on fetch quest for rare medicinal woadroot.

Flood. As if the record-breaking rain wasn't bad enough, upstream dam is threatened when local sorcerer accidentally summons something...big...from the elemental plane of water.

New bridge construction reveals ancient aquatic temple. Errant workers desecrate the alter and incur the wrath of modern revival cult.

[manyslayer]

Some spirit haunting fishermen. In actuality the person was murdered and just trying to bring the murderer to justice for some investigation.

Have the PCs get dragged into local politics as "impartial outsiders" to settle petty and minor disputes.

Check out the Wild Sheep chase at DM's Guild for a quick scenario that's free (designed for level 4-5). Does require a wizard's tower in the area around the town, though.

[Cicciograna]

Somebody stole all the fishing implements of the local fishermen. Your players have been tasked with finding them, and thus will be doing the same thing you are doing in this thread: looking for hooks.

[Yak]

The town my players remember most was a town of idiots. Everyone they encountered was a straight up idiot. The longer they spent there the lower their mental stats got, but only reflected by higher DCs for mental checks so they didn’t know what was happening. They hated the townsfolk and wanted to burn the town to the ground, until they discovered that it was actually an evil wizard’s spell suppressing the mental faculties of the populous so they wouldn’t question the various odd things he was up to.

[MintyNinja]

I really appreciate the input so far. Here's a few that I'll be trying to incorporate into the small riverside town of Westfork:


Good old river troll or hag who is kidnapping and eating people.


Some spirit haunting fishermen. In actuality the person was murdered and just trying to bring the murderer to justice for some investigation.


Flood. As if the record-breaking rain wasn't bad enough, upstream dam is threatened when local sorcerer accidentally summons something...big...from the elemental plane of water.

I think I got enough river and fisherman based hooks for now, could we start throwing in more Frontier Town stuff? Like a shipment of Whiskey is late in arriving but really it's been hijacked by a local gang of bandits at the behest of a rival tavern-keeper. And when I say small town I mean larger than a village, with walls, piers, shipping docks, and warehouses.

[No brains]

It's not a river of water.

[Imbalance]

Non-aggressive Aarakocra natives integrated peacefully long ago despite this town being built from the tall timber they once called home, but in adopting the agrarian ways of the frontier community have become somewhat...overweight. It's come to the point after a few of their shorter generations that they hardly ever fly and when they do they cause damage to rooftops and ramparts where they have to roost to catch their breath. Party must find a diplomatic solution to convince them to return to their traditional hunter/gatherer ways and the freedom of the sky before the earthbound townsfolk get fed up.