The PCs are invited to a birthday party for the mayor of a large town. It’s a great feast with lots of good food and merriment. At the end of the night, a huge cake is hauled out into the town square. Just as the mayor is about to cut into the cake, two eyes [...]
Have the local authority offering bounties. For example, if the PCs are going to run into kobolds in their upcoming adventure, let them find posters offering a 5 gold bounty for each kobold ear delivered to the local magistrates office. Offer some more bounties, too. For example, if the kobold shamans all wear necklaces of [...]
A rash of murders with no common link is traced back to a slave trader with a magical amulet capable of creating an exact copy of someone’s body. The trader kidnaps the person, copies their body, and then makes it look like they were murdered so that no one will think to search for them.
Marcus Aneidas, the wealthy head of the thieves’ guild in Masonport, has received a sizable contract. He’s being offered several million gold pieces for a single ruby kept in the palace treasury. In order to get it, he’s decided that he needs a distraction. A young street urchin, having heard of the good deeds the [...]
One of the PCs enters his room at the inn to find a man sitting on his bed. The man is holding one of the PC’s daggers, but is completely at ease. As soon as the PC enters, the man screams, “HELP! HELP!” and then slits his own throat with the PC’s dagger. On the [...]
The simply-named Messengers’ Guild is a conglomerate of merchants, couriers, caravan operators, and others who work together to create a rudimentary postal system. Identified by their stylized nightingale emblem, Messengers’ Guild offices are located all over the land. Large cities often have several, and even smaller towns usually have at least one. Smaller villages and [...]
The PCs are hired by some upper-class merchants to get rid of a neighbor of theirs who they’ve just learned is a witch, and responsible for a string of disappearances stretching back generations. She’s lived in the house for a long time, longer even than most of the people hiring the PCs, and they claim [...]
Here’s a couple of encounters with a common theme: the PCs find a list with their names on it and no explanation. The PCs stumble upon the body of a dwarf in an alleyway. Dwarves are uncommon in this area, and he wears traveling clothing. No cause of death is apparent, but a look of [...]
Volgart‘s warehouse is roughly 80′ long and 60′ wide. The center is dominated by a huge cauldron, 20′ in diameter and the rim is 10′ off the floor. Indigo-colored steam rises from the cauldron to the ceiling, 30 feet high, which has a series of catwalks suspended by chains. The chains are poorly maintained and [...]
Volgart is a gaunt, wiry man of middle age who lives and works in a converted warehouse. His knowledge of the alchemical arts is, some say, unrivaled. Certainly he seems to think so. Unfortunately, he is also quite a bit off his rocker, perhaps from years of strange fumes and accidents. He is independently wealthy, [...]
