101 Unusual Adventure Hooks

[cavalier973]

43.) After spending the night in the ruins of an old tower, the adventurers find that the landscape has changed dramatically from the time they entered the building. There was nothing but fields surrounding the tower when they entered; they exit the next morning onto a busy avenue in the middle of a city.

 

[cavalier973]

44.) The adventurers take refuge from a storm in a cave. Deciding to explore, they come upon an ancient red dragon lying atop a mound of priceless treasure. Though the adventurers are low level, the dragon seems absolutely terrified of them.

 

[cavalier973]

45.) The adventurers enter a village of regular humanoids (humans, elves, dwarves, etc.) in which everyone is exceedingly deferential to a crotchety and profane old goblin.

 

[cavalier973]

46.) The adventurers are commissioned by a village mayor to retrieve a trinket from the abandoned ruins of a nearby town. When they leave the ruined town with the trinket, the town becomes whole, filled with people, and bustling with commerce. When they arrive at the village, they find that it is deserted and falling apart. As they stand in what was once the village square, a messenger from the town arrives and demands that they return the trinket at once.

 

[cavalier973]

47.) While exploring an ancient ruin, the adventurers stumble into a chamber in which they meet their future selves. The "future selves" vehemently warn the "present selves" to do some thing that seems nonsensical ("take off your shoes, quick!") then fall to the ground, dead.

 

[Tonguez]

48) The party comes across a group the dry and desiccated skeletons. Even a cursory inspection shows that the corpses are of the same race and build as the PCs. The PCs will also notice that although they are old and tattered, the corpses are also wearing the same clothing and armour as the PCs. Anyone searching the packs of the corpses will find that they are also carrying exactly the same equipment as the PCs (sans magic)...

 

[RobShanti]

The sky is lit with a red glow in the north. A half day's travel from where the PCs are, the ruins of an ancient tower long empty and crumbling are now belching a column of flames into the sky. Stampedes of wildlife are fleeing the area of the ruins. A bit of burning detritus spewed from the site falls not far from the party: it's a fragment of a tablet containing runes long forgotten. On the flip side of the fragment is the graven image of a bulbous entity with many arm-like and leg-like projections divided in swollen nightmare segments and endowed with two heads: one of an aged man dark and regal and terrible, with a grizzled beard; the other indeterminate due to being off the broken edge of the fragment...

 

[Dioltach]

50) The PCs watch a play or listen to the performance of a ballad. The performance only tells part of the story, though -- the actors/singer promise to continue the tale the following evening. After the first performance, the PCs start noticing that events happening to them are identical to the tale told in the play/ballad.

 

[Electric Wizard]

51) The characters awaken in an overgrown garden with what they think is the mother of all hangovers. As they try to find their bearings, a jubilant villager runs by and announces that they are finally free. They remember that they ventured to the haunted villa to slay a medusa, but were turned to stone. The most recent adventurer has been a statue for over a hundred years, the least recent for maybe three hundred. Time to pick up the pieces and move on...

52) The characters awaken in bodies that aren't their own. Even worse, their new bodies belong to the most wanted criminals in the kingdom!

 

[cavalier973]

53.) In order to aid the adventurers in their quest to rid the shire from some fabulous monster, the baron lends them his magic sword, a priceless heirloom that has been passed down for generations. The baron makes it quite clear that he wants the sword returned as soon as they succeed. Before they even reach the monster's lair, they accidently break the sword beyond repair.