[World of Greyhawk] Need some plot hook ideas

[Keld Denar]

So, my party just stumped me. They are currently in the Freecity of Dyvers on the edge of the Nyr Dyv. Origionally, when the game started, they were under contract from a Baklunish merchant in Greyhawk to recover some Ur-Flan relic from around Bright Sentery in the Shieldlands, but they failed to recover the relic. While sailing back to Greyhawk, they were ambushed by an Iuzian warship. They managed to disable the wizard and his "skeleton crew" of skeletons and comandeered his ship and towed it to Dyvers to repair and sell. They weren't able to pawn the captured ship before the captain of the ship they were on wanted to sail, so now they are stuck in Dyvers with literally no contacts and no motivation.

The party is all 6th, almost 7th level and rather...questionably aligned, and seem to be motivated mostly by money, although they are rather pragmatic about that and outright reject hooks I toss out that seem too dangerous for their pay. Now I'm kinda stumped as toward where to go.

I don't really want to have some kinda "adventures wanted" ad, just because they've had something like that in a previous game an expressed dislike for it. I also don't want to leave it too sandboxy, as while they RP well amongst themselves, I like to provide a little direction so I can be prepared with well thought out and balanced combat encounters. I don't care if they stick around Dyvers for a bit, its a major metropolitan city, or head elsewhere, although I'd like to eventually get them into the Bandit Kingdoms for some shananigans.

So, I beg of you, does anyone have any ideas on how to hook my players?

[The_JJ]

Local gang wars might be fun. Have them approached by two groups looking to hire some extra muscle.

Or ninjas. Throwing some ninjas carrying strange instructions from an unidentified party at them will shake them up pretty well. If you're any good at improv DMing, try doing that and then rolling with however they react.

[JonestheSpy]

Iuz wants his ship back.

A little more involved - secret cargo on ship, important for magical/strategic intelligence/other reasons. Iuz wants that back. Players may or may not discover cargo before the repo men show up.

Nice thing about this is that the players don't have to bite the hook - the barracuda is coming for them. And it's not railroading, as nobody forced the players to keep the ship and try and sell it, instead of abandoning it and heading back home.

[nyjastul69]

Maybe Dyvers has a zoo or there is a traveling menagerie in town and some how some of the beasts escape. The zoo keeper/merchant frantically calls for aid, offering compensation for capturing the escapees. This could lead to other possibilities such as the merchant hiring the party to obtain more beasts, or to an investigation as to how the escape happened. It's also a curve to the PCs to try and corral the beasts with no/minimal collateral damage.

[Keld Denar]

Trouble is, they already sold the ship at a mad discount. Full warship and they only got 2500g for it, split 4 ways. Its out of their hands, and Iuz would be playing outside of his Int score if he expected any kind of attack on Dyvers to succeed. He's already waging war on 3 or 4 fronts, the last thing he needs is a bunch of pissed of Dyversians setting up a naval blockade. His near infinite army of undead slaves is only NEARLY infinite....

I do kinda like the gang idea. Any idea what factions I should have? Dyvers has a well developed theives guild who control all of the assassins and most of the merchants. Maybe they could rival a church? The church of Zilchus (God of Currency and Trade) would be a good backer, but I don't think they would be big on open conflict that would get the PCs embroiled.

[bosssmiley]

So, my party just stumped me. They are currently in the Freecity of Dyvers on the edge of the Nyr Dyv.
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The party is all 6th, almost 7th level and rather...questionably aligned, and seem to be motivated mostly by money, although they are rather pragmatic about that and outright reject hooks I toss out that seem too dangerous for their pay. Now I'm kinda stumped as toward where to go.

You need to see this: Swords and Sorcery Greyhawk, Dyvers the Wicked.

[Keld Denar]

Thats kinda cool...if Dyvers was occupied. I'm running the game in around CY 597 and its currently not occupied. That is kinda interesting though!

[Keld Denar]

Anyone else have any ideas?

[urudnd]

Hi,

Long time Greyhawker, first post here. You can check here or here for some ideas. And remember there's always Canonfire! to ask the Greysages.

Saludos!
Gabriel