Please feel free to post your own ideas, as well as repost currently listed ideas with expanded content or alterations to suit your group.
.-= Hooks/Storylines =-.
() The local temple to [insert good aligned god here] has been desecrated. Rumors have been circulating that it what the adventuring guild in the area, due to the leaders obvious and boastful opposition to their choice of shrine. In reality, it was a noble's doing to try to cause attention to be drawn to a small down to increase commerce. But why such drastic measures?
() Someone has been murdering the poor- in the open, in alleys, in taverns and in busy streets. As the party arrives, more beggars are killed. This is actually a distraction as the culprits have been leading people to bury the dead across town from the noble's very rich tombs.
() A strange disease breaks out in a port city- this odd happening is occurring at the same time as hordes of [insert favorite lowlevel horde] begin plaguing the city. What is the disease really doing, who is causing it, and for what purpose?
() A wealthy Duke sends out word that he needs an escorting party. The party must escort him to a bigger city a weeks journey away. When almost to the new city, the party has to defend him from marauders, who have been hired by a guild in the city he is coming from. The players find out that he has stolen massive amounts of magical items and money from the guild. Does the party return him to the old city, then facing the guild for killing their members, or do they continue on to the new city for the hefty reward they were promised?
() A small town's most popular Herbalist goes missing. As the town doesn't have a cleric, she is the closest to a doctor they have. Rumor spreads quickly as the party learns that a Wizard and his apprentice had stopped in to rest for a few weeks, and the apprentice is missing too. The Wizard has remained in the city, though the locals are starting to believe that the apprentice was evil and has stolen the herbalist. All signs point to a set of old ruins four or five days to the east.
[The two are actually in love, and he failed at a teleportation spell, accidentally opening a Shadowgate due to an old spell half finished at the site. The party will not find out about the lovers plight until they reach the ruins, seeing him trying to defend her from fiends.]
() The party happens into a tavern, where a seeming crazy old man sells them a rugged old map for only a few copper. Upon examination, this is an arcane map, heavily spelled- too intricate for any level to really sense. As he makes his way out of the tavern and a good piece down the street, he is murdered, with no sight of the assassin. What is the map to, and why did this crazy old beggar want to get rid of it so badly?
() While moving from one city to another in search of work, the party happens upon a dead adventurer. He is propped up against an oddly dead tree in the middle of a lively forest. The grass is dead around him, and he looks as though he has been int he spot for ages, despite fresh, stumbling tracks that lead up to him. If the party loots him, describe the condition of his clothing and weapons as fairly good, sellable quality, including what looks to be a basic, non-enchanted copper ring. Whoever looks at the ring will see it as non-arcane, though the magic is only 'asleep'. This is a good 'draining' ring that siphons life to a demon/god/evil later in the campaign.
() A large and prosperous kingdom is known for its attractive ruling King. He is known for his lusty though gentlemanly nature, and every year picks a new young lady from the kingdom to be brought into his castle as a harem girl. This festival is held on a comfortable spring evening in a large port city, enticing the party with the tale of tons of merchants, food, and alcohol that can be available. Everyone speaks so highly of the ruler except a young woman in a tavern who is beautiful enough to be considered, though has no want for it despite the news of a wealthy sum that is bestowed on the family of the girl chosen. She tells the party of the whispers that the girls go to their deaths, instead of the glorious and illustrious lives that the Ruler says they will have. She tells the party that he is actually a demon of some kind, and he only takes the most beautiful to torture them for a year before he picks a new one. She, naturally, is chosen, after endearing herself to the whole party.
[The Ruler is actually a vampire who steals the girls off and charms the families into refusing payment. Can the party find other people who haven't been charmed into believing the lies, and what will they do about the endearing woman who was just taken away to her death?]
() A small village has been having a problem of missing people. The town is known for is export of apples (the best in the region), as a wizard who recently died had enchanted a small patch of forest within the city gates to produce all year round. Truthfully, the wizard had been looked down upon for his magic ramblings and experiments, and right before being wrongfully killed for the betterment of the town, had cursed the apple grove that whoever ate of it would be drawn to the grove and turned into a tree. His spirit is in the largest tree, and when destroyed, will release the townspeople who haven't been chopped down for commerce. (Druids and fey will immediately know that something is wrong with these trees.)
"The King of Winter's Winds" : From the frozen north, there are tales of a frost giant who has claimed anything touched by the snows of winter belong to him, and his forces have troubled Rhymer's Isle almost casually . . . as if they have little interest in fighting, from confidence they might win. The Rhyliss Empire is unable to send help, and not motivated to save such a harbor of lawlessness.
1) Spell-Thief was performing poorly at the magic Institute. Administration wanted to get him out of there, so his Faculty Sponsor asks him to deliver a letter, book and puzzle box to his friend. Letter is actually a coded message related to a smuggling plot, and the puzzle box contains a gem as payment to the smuggling agent.
2) Fighter takes work on the boat the spell thief is travelling on. He does not take to the sea well, and gets in a big fight with the First Mate. The captain decides to leave him on an island they are passing, but the spell-thief intervenes and is able to convince the captain to let him be until the reach port.
The fighter and spell thief agree to "team-up" since they are both foreigners in this area.
3) Sorcerer character was a bit of a con-man. He conned a powerful underworld character out of a large amount of gold. Thugs arrive to get the money back, but he's already spent it, so he goes on the lam, ending up in the same port town the ST and the fighter arrived at.
4) Wizard/Librarian gets wanderlust, but the Guild thinks he's too old and unsuited for a mission. He convinces a younger wizard friend to let him complete his simple mission for him, which is to track down a rogue wizard who left the guild years earlier and is thought to be nearby. (The rogue wizard is near a town about a day's ride from the town the party all meet in.)
5) The cleric character has left his monastery at the behest of his elders to go out and do good in the world. He conveniently ends up in the same town as the other 4.
The hook that gets them all together was taken from the Night of the Strawmen adventure by Stephen J. Smith. The town cleric is attacked by an animated scarecrow construct during the annual Strawmen festival. When it attacked, they all pitched in to help defend the priest. Seeing their prowess in battle, the priest and mayor ask the PCs to investigate the missing ships. Usually this small port sees 1-2 trading ships pass through each week, but none have been seen in the past few weeks. (A group of pirates has been ambushing the ships.) With the offer of a nominal reward and the chance to claim any lost cargo, the PCs agree to look into the mystery.
Some of the PCs (wizard and spell-thief) still have hooks that will lead them personally (and hopefully the whole party) on to other adventures that will interweave in a variety of ways.
- There is word of a gladiatorial tournament to be held in celebration of (some event, make something up to suit your world). The prizes include a princely sum of gold, and some rare magical objects. Naturally, the tournament attracts all sorts of novice combatants, and some veterans . . . but among them there is one with a darker purpose, seeking a particular object rather than the glory and gold. And they are intent on only winning that, or taking it back should a party member earn that prize.
- A plague decimates a nearby mining town, leaving the remainder of the populace too weak to work or even resist as a band of gnolls take over the mine. They show little interest in the town itself except to chase off the few who come to investigate. When the dead of the plague start rising and heading into the mine as well, a call is put out for able-bodied adventurers to end this nightmare.
- An isolated barony has become plagued by all sorts of odd turns of fate, and slowly its resources are drained away trying to deal with the fallout of each one. As the land suffers and criminal elements flock to the area, the Baron puts out an open challenge to any adventurers. If they can bring law and order back to the roads and land, he will grant them positions of authority. Of course, the ones responsible for the degradation of the barony are not pleased with the interference . . .
- A band of legendary adventurers passes through a town near the party, and they go to meet them and hear a story of how they felled a powerful red dragon. But rumors and whispers of that name are told after, about how a band of evil humanoids has been seen on the edges of the wild frontier . . . said to follow that name. The legends seem uncomfortable, and slip off before answering a question posed by a drunken villager: "You slayed her before, right? You can do it again!"
Thank you guys for sharing!