D&D 5E Expand on my plot hooks...

[Denalz]

So I'm trying to plan the next adventure for my group. I gave them a list of ten possible plot hooks to choose from. Below are the ones they picked out as their favorites. I need help fleshing out some of the ideas. Anyone care to throw in their two cents on any of the entries? P.S. Some of these ideas are borrowed, no need to call me on it.

1. You have been commissioned by the king to investigate the alleged source of a undead plague which has been spreading at frightening speed from the Wild North. If the rumors are true that this disease is arcane in origin, you must find a way to stop it.

2. At first few noticed or cared when orphans and street urchins began turning up missing. Over the past year however, disappearing children from loving and even a few affluent families has sent the town into a panic. Though not a crisis of enough magnitude to draw the King's attention, the resident noble is offering a handsome reward to anyone able to solve this dark mystery.[HI] (My players really like this one but I'll admit I have no idea where to go with it.)
[/HI]
3. There is only one safe route through the labyrinth like forest known as The Twist. The outside world has recently lost contact with the village who harvests an essential medicinal mushroom that grows only within the caves which lie deep within The Twist. Attempts at investigating the cessation of shipments have resulted in messengers who either return madmen or are never seen again.

4. Stopping in a small lake town on your way, you enter a local tavern where you find a group of townspeople discussing the recent spike in illness, the recent poisoning of a well, along with strange lights on the lake, and other occurrences that make them think there's a witch in the town. The general topic of conversation is whether or not to try the reclusive herbalist who lives on the other side of the lake as a witch because of it.

5. Your party was advised against traveling this way. After all, what could be more dangerous than wyvern mounted raiders? The fierce mountain dwellers have grown bolder in their attacks and soon the villages won't have enough resources to survive the coming winter. [HI](I'm thinking I will throw in that the raiders have been stealing young women as well. When the PC's eventually find the women, they will be surprised to find that the young ladies have fallen in love with their captors, now husbands, and have no wish to return home. Maybe there is an insidious reason the raiders need to steal wives? What's been happening to the women in their own tribe?).[/HI]

6. For the orcs, it is the time of the Vadok Vosu, the Death Lust. The young orcish warriors are pouring into the country side, murdering and pillaging as they go. They seek to prove themselves worthy of the Ushtarak (Orc Horde) and rumor has it that this rite of passage will have even greater implications. The King has chosen to rely upon mercenaries to quell this threat, not yet wishing to dignify the orcs with an official military response. [HI](I believe I will make the King in this adventure guilty of colluding with the orcish rulers in order to give them passage into his rival's lands without implicating him as the instigator of a great war).[/HI]

7. Mornach is the only outpost at the edge of the mysterious island continent of Degag Higmot (Sequestered Earth). The original source of ghost-stories, old as the mountains, Degag Higmot is said to be a wild and perilous place filled with monsters and worse. Only the craziest and most desperate of men exile themselves to Mornach. However, as some of its residents has been returning to the mainland with riches beyond imagination, more than one ruler has been motivated to send explorers north to determine if the benefits outweigh the risks of settling this forsaken land.

 

[Denalz]

I would even appreciate someone listing them in the order which they find most interesting.

 

[Imaculata]

2. At first few noticed or cared when orphans and street urchins began turning up missing. Over the past year however, disappearing children from loving and even a few affluent families has sent the town into a panic. Though not a crisis of enough magnitude to draw the King's attention, the resident noble is offering a handsome reward to anyone able to solve this dark mystery.[HI] (My players really like this one but I'll admit I have no idea where to go with it.)
[/HI]

In my own campaign I had a trio of hags abduct children, for their own cruel entertainment. They lived in a sewer lair underneath the city, and they would play cruel pranks on the citizens. They turned the son of a local blacksmith into a cat. He would see the cat every day, and have no idea it was his son. And every day the son would forget more about what it was like to be a human, until only the cat remained. The hags also trapped people in paintings, and then made sure the paintings fell into the hands of their family, so they could watch them slowly get older and die. They would poison the drinking water, and do everything in their power to make the lives of the citizens worse. They even had a ship in a bottle, which was an actual ship which had been shrunken, along with its crew. Occasionally the witches would shake the bottle, just for fun, to watch the miniature crew roll across the deck and some of them drown. I took inspiration from Roald Dahl's The Witches.

[video=youtube;oiC54FkzlHU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiC54FkzlHU[/video]

The hags occasionally roam the streets at night, often in the guise of a normal human. They also use these deceptive tricks to fool the players. They have a few safe houses all over the city, which are secret entrances into their sewer lair. The hags fester underneath the city, like vermin. They enjoy the suffering of others, akin to a little kid frying ants with a magnifying glass. They want to watch people squirm and die. In the center of their lair they have a large scrying pool, where they can spy on their victims and enjoy their suffering every day. It's like basic cable for a trio of evil hags. They have a large furnace to heat their massive magical cauldron (because of course they would have that), and they force children to feed coals into the oven day and night, or they will soon join the coals themselves.

The hags are vulnerable to daylight and silver, since it shines brightly like sunrise. They hate all things that are shiny, especially gems. At midnight they are the strongest, but in the light their joints become feeble, and they require the life force of others to replenish their own energy. They practice necromancy, but mostly use cruel curses on their victims. Especially in the poor districts, vagrants will share stories of the strange curses that have befallen their friends and family. The hags are physically very strong, and dangerous. Plus they radiate an aura of fear.

The sewers

To find the hag lair, the players first have to search the sewers. There is a secret entrance into the sewers underneath an old bridge, leading straight into the kitchens. On the map the secret tunnel is not drawn, because I show this map to my players and cover pieces of it up that they have not visited yet. The bridge entrance also happens to be the last location of one of the victims. But there are also a few other secret entrances in old abandoned houses in the city, that the hags use to enter the sewers. It would be easy to have the players discover one of these entrances to put them on the right path. Optionally the players could also figure out a way to destroy the rusty metal grating that blocks the normal sewer entrance.



Hall of Paintings
This hall is filled with magical paintings. Each painting seems to have someone trapped inside, except for one. The paintings are as follows:

-A man dead on a bench in front of a farm.
-A woman dead in a corn field.
-An empty painting of a rack, waiting for a victim.
-A young man hanging from a noose in a room.
-An old woman outside a tavern, begging for food (still alive).
-A young girl ripped apart in a maze, with a hungry beast.
-An empty prison cell in a prison tower.
-An old sailor floating in the sea, with a sinking ship in the background, and a sea monster.

Egg chamber
This room is filled with eggs to breed more of the guardian monsters that the hags are using to defend their lair. The players can destroy the chamber as a bonus objective. Depending on what monsters you want to use as minions for the hags, you can also swap out this room for something more appropriate.

The lair

The hag lair is constantly patrolled by the stupid minions of the hags, while the hags themselves also randomly wander around. Stealth is essential, because the players want to weaken and separate the hags first, before fighting them. When confronted in the cauldron room the hags are stronger, and if all three of them are together, they are even stronger. So the players want to sneak around the lair first, and take out their sources of power. It is important to foreshadow the power of the hags when they are together.

Drains are marked on the map, because there is an optional scenario where a magical trap actually shrinks the players, and they need to use the miniature ship in the living room to sail their way through the lair.

On the map various sewer pipes are drawn only as entrances, but if they face each other, they are actually connected. Further more, the ceiling passage at the bottom of the map actually connects to a secret door behind a bookcase in Calibri's shrine. (again I did not draw these passages connected entirely, as not to give away the secret passage to my players)



Cells
Behind a thick steel door, are small cages with dried corpses. The life is completely drained out of them, but one prisoner is still alive. His name is Carl Vinyard, a stable boy of 20 years old. He knows that the Hags all carry a hag eye, which allows them to open the special eye doors to their sanctums. He also knows they use a central scrying pool to plan their crimes. Freeing him is a bonus objective.

Kettle room
A large kettle is suspended above a burning fire. The concoction has a horrid rotting smell, and if players inspect it, they find human bones. The green carpet is a magical trap that entangles players. The chest in the room is a mimic. There is a secret door behind a bookcase to the north, that leads to the staircase room at the top of the map.

Living Room
Inside this Living Room, the players find the cat named The Baron. He wears a bracelet with a strange stone in it, which is one of the hag eyes. The hags can spy through it. There’s also a model ship in a bottle, on the mantle of the fireplace. This is actually a real ship that was shrunken in size. There’s several mini sailors on the ship, feasting on a chunk of cheese. The Baron is actually a transformed 10 year old boy named Luke Valette, son of Lucien (the local blacksmith) and Lora Valette (his wife).

Kitchen – Upper
An ogre is preparing food in the kitchen, and appears neutral. He’ll happily chat with the players and does them no harm. He is however actually Shaatannelle, the Hag of Rivers. If possible, she’ll keep an eye on the players, and surprise them when she can.

Kitchen - Lower
The Kitchen is stocked with mostly human flesh, and some cheese.

Scrying Pool
This room is filled by a giant whirling pool of water. The magic from the three shrines enchants the water, and allows the hags to spy all over the city. The furnaces keep the water boiling hot, and it is clear that the hags also use this water to make sacrifices. Disabling the scrying pool in some way, is a bonus objective. The magical doors to the scrying pool will not open, unless the players possess a hag eye, or they sneak after one of the hags.

Library
This room is not only filled with countless bookshelves, but it also has a statue of a ragged looking man in it. The statue looks very live-like, and it looks as if the man was in the process of grabbing a book. The victim is in fact a creature called Dirt-Bag. Dirt-Bag is a loyal servant of the hags, but they grew tired of him, and one of the hags turned him to stone. He has no idea that any time has passed since his petrification. The rug is trapped, and triggers an entangle spell.

Shrines
The shrines boost the powers of the hags. Destroying all three shrines is a bonus objective.

Furnace
In the circular hallway is a rusty ladder down to the tiny furnace room below. There’s an old furnace here that runs on coal, and is used to keep the water in the scrying room boiling hot. As long as the fire is burning, and the water is not tempered with, the hags receive a power boost.

Anti-magic Chamber
This room automatically nullifies spell effects, such as curses and active spells. Magical items are temporarily disabled while in this room. The room looks like a large round room with lines carved into the floor, that run towards a central arcane symbol for nullification. Strange lights twinkle in the air. This rooms nullifies the effects of any shrink spell, and it frees victims from the magical paintings.

Sewer pipes
A system of stone sewer pipes, connect throughout the lair. They are dirty and smell terrible. If the player goes underwater, he must save against disease.

Shaatanelle shrine
There's a secret door into this shrine behind a bookcase.

Each hag has her own theme and appropriately themed private quarters. Shaatannelle, Hag of Rivers. She created the security and magical doors of the lair. Calibri, Hag of Swamps (and Fonts). She has a bit of a temper, and accidentally turned one of her servants to stone. Now she complains about having to fuel the furnace herself. Ashtasha, Hag of the Seas. She created the guardian monsters of the lair, and often complains about their stupidity.

The movement of the hags can be decided randomly with a dice roll, as long as the hags aren't busy doing something.

1: Busy in current room for 1 round
2: Leave room and take first left
3: Leave room and take first right
4: Head to scrying pool and stay there for 1 round
5: Head to nearest friendly and get status update for 1 round
6: Head to nearby point of interest and interact for 1 round

 

[hopeless]

4) The Herbalist is a former Sorceress turned Druid who bought the deeds to her farm, but refuses to convert to the local faith resulting in them trying to accuse her of being a witch since she's the only practitioner in the area who can brew healing potions so they consider her a threat to their control over the community.

So have your PCs hired to deal with an evil sorceress maybe claim she cursed a pair of locals for turning her down then have them turn a corner and witness a Disney Princess singing to the birds sort of scene then have her see them then promptly turn and run with clear evidence they've been lied to as the hut they assumed she lived in has clearly been burnt down.

Any paladin using divine sense will immediately know she isn't evil and if they bother to try talking learn the local church is the villain ala Ladyhawke sort of deal!

 

[Denalz]

In my own campaign I had a trio of hags abduct children, for their own cruel entertainment. They lived in a sewer lair underneath the city, and they would play cruel pranks on the citizens. They turned the son of a local blacksmith into a cat. He would see the cat every day, and have no idea it was his son. And every day the son would forget more about what it was like to be a human, until only the cat remained. The hags also trapped people in paintings, and then made sure the paintings fell into the hands of their family, so they could watch them slowly get older and die. They would poison the drinking water, and do everything in their power to make the lives of the citizens worse. They even had a ship in a bottle, which was an actual ship which had been shrunken, along with its crew. Occasionally the witches would shake the bottle, just for fun, to watch the miniature crew roll across the deck and some of them drown. I took inspiration from Roald Dahl's The Witches.

[video=youtube;oiC54FkzlHU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiC54FkzlHU[/video]

The hags occasionally roam the streets at night, often in the guise of a normal human. They also use these deceptive tricks to fool the players. They have a few safe houses all over the city, which are secret entrances into their sewer lair. The hags fester underneath the city, like vermin. They enjoy the suffering of others, akin to a little kid frying ants with a magnifying glass. They want to watch people squirm and die. In the center of their lair they have a large scrying pool, where they can spy on their victims and enjoy their suffering every day. It's like basic cable for a trio of evil hags. They have a large furnace to heat their massive magical cauldron (because of course they would have that), and they force children to feed coals into the oven day and night, or they will soon join the coals themselves.

The hags are vulnerable to daylight and silver, since it shines brightly like sunrise. They hate all things that are shiny, especially gems. At midnight they are the strongest, but in the light their joints become feeble, and they require the life force of others to replenish their own energy. They practice necromancy, but mostly use cruel curses on their victims. Especially in the poor districts, vagrants will share stories of the strange curses that have befallen their friends and family. The hags are physically very strong, and dangerous. Plus they radiate an aura of fear.

The sewers

To find the hag lair, the players first have to search the sewers. There is a secret entrance into the sewers underneath an old bridge, leading straight into the kitchens. On the map the secret tunnel is not drawn, because I show this map to my players and cover pieces of it up that they have not visited yet. The bridge entrance also happens to be the last location of one of the victims. But there are also a few other secret entrances in old abandoned houses in the city, that the hags use to enter the sewers. It would be easy to have the players discover one of these entrances to put them on the right path. Optionally the players could also figure out a way to destroy the rusty metal grating that blocks the normal sewer entrance.

View attachment 87388

Hall of Paintings
This hall is filled with magical paintings. Each painting seems to have someone trapped inside, except for one. The paintings are as follows:

-A man dead on a bench in front of a farm.
-A woman dead in a corn field.
-An empty painting of a rack, waiting for a victim.
-A young man hanging from a noose in a room.
-An old woman outside a tavern, begging for food (still alive).
-A young girl ripped apart in a maze, with a hungry beast.
-An empty prison cell in a prison tower.
-An old sailor floating in the sea, with a sinking ship in the background, and a sea monster.

Egg chamber
This room is filled with eggs to breed more of the guardian monsters that the hags are using to defend their lair. The players can destroy the chamber as a bonus objective. Depending on what monsters you want to use as minions for the hags, you can also swap out this room for something more appropriate.

The lair

The hag lair is constantly patrolled by the stupid minions of the hags, while the hags themselves also randomly wander around. Stealth is essential, because the players want to weaken and separate the hags first, before fighting them. When confronted in the cauldron room the hags are stronger, and if all three of them are together, they are even stronger. So the players want to sneak around the lair first, and take out their sources of power. It is important to foreshadow the power of the hags when they are together.

Drains are marked on the map, because there is an optional scenario where a magical trap actually shrinks the players, and they need to use the miniature ship in the living room to sail their way through the lair.

On the map various sewer pipes are drawn only as entrances, but if they face each other, they are actually connected. Further more, the ceiling passage at the bottom of the map actually connects to a secret door behind a bookcase in Calibri's shrine. (again I did not draw these passages connected entirely, as not to give away the secret passage to my players)

View attachment 87389

Cells
Behind a thick steel door, are small cages with dried corpses. The life is completely drained out of them, but one prisoner is still alive. His name is Carl Vinyard, a stable boy of 20 years old. He knows that the Hags all carry a hag eye, which allows them to open the special eye doors to their sanctums. He also knows they use a central scrying pool to plan their crimes. Freeing him is a bonus objective.

Kettle room
A large kettle is suspended above a burning fire. The concoction has a horrid rotting smell, and if players inspect it, they find human bones. The green carpet is a magical trap that entangles players. The chest in the room is a mimic. There is a secret door behind a bookcase to the north, that leads to the staircase room at the top of the map.

Living Room
Inside this Living Room, the players find the cat named The Baron. He wears a bracelet with a strange stone in it, which is one of the hag eyes. The hags can spy through it. There’s also a model ship in a bottle, on the mantle of the fireplace. This is actually a real ship that was shrunken in size. There’s several mini sailors on the ship, feasting on a chunk of cheese. The Baron is actually a transformed 10 year old boy named Luke Valette, son of Lucien (the local blacksmith) and Lora Valette (his wife).

Kitchen – Upper
An ogre is preparing food in the kitchen, and appears neutral. He’ll happily chat with the players and does them no harm. He is however actually Shaatannelle, the Hag of Rivers. If possible, she’ll keep an eye on the players, and surprise them when she can.

Kitchen - Lower
The Kitchen is stocked with mostly human flesh, and some cheese.

Scrying Pool
This room is filled by a giant whirling pool of water. The magic from the three shrines enchants the water, and allows the hags to spy all over the city. The furnaces keep the water boiling hot, and it is clear that the hags also use this water to make sacrifices. Disabling the scrying pool in some way, is a bonus objective. The magical doors to the scrying pool will not open, unless the players possess a hag eye, or they sneak after one of the hags.

Library
This rooms is not only filled by bookshelves, but also has a statue of a ragged looking man in it. The statue looks very live-like, and it looks as if the man was in the process of grabbing a book. The victim is in fact a creature called Dirt-Bag. Dirt-Bag is a loyal servant of the hags, but they grew tired of him, and one of the hags turned him to stone. He has no idea that any time has passed since his petrification. The rug is trapped, and triggers an entangle spell.

Shrines
The shrines boost the powers of the hags. Destroying all three shrines is a bonus objective.

Furnace
In the circular hallway is a rusty ladder down to the tiny furnace room below. There’s an old furnace here that runs on coal, and is used to keep the water in the scrying room boiling hot. As long as the fire is burning, and the water is not tempered with, the hags receive a power boost.

Anti-magic Chamber
This room automatically nullifies spell effects, such as curses and active spells. Magical items are temporarily disabled while in this room. The room looks like a large round room with lines carved into the floor, that run towards a central arcane symbol for nullification. Strange lights twinkle in the air. This rooms nullifies the effects of any shrink spell, and it frees victims from the magical paintings.

Sewer pipes
A system of stone sewer pipes, connect throughout the lair. They are dirty and smell terrible. If the player goes underwater, he must save against disease.

Shaatanelle shrine
There's a secret door into this shrine behind a bookcase.

Each hag has her own theme and appropriately themed private quarters. Shaatannelle, Hag of Rivers. She created the security and magical doors of the lair. Calibri, Hag of Swamps (and Fonts). She has a bit of a temper, and accidentally turned one of her servants to stone. Now she complains about having to fuel the furnace herself. Ashtasha, Hag of the Seas. She created the guardian monsters of the lair, and often complains about their stupidity.

The movement of the hags can be decided randomly with a dice roll, as long as the hags aren't busy doing something.

1: Busy in current room for 1 round
2: Leave room and take first left
3: Leave room and take first right
4: Head to scrying pool and stay there for 1 round
5: Head to nearest friendly and get status update for 1 round
6: Head to nearby point of interest and interact for 1 round

Wow! You may as well have written an entire adventure for me. Well done and thank you . That being said, I probably should have mentioned that I had been considering hags for this plot line but didn't think it was a good idea since I just used a hag in my last adventure. What do you think? Is it too redundant?

 

[Ancalagon]

That had to be one of the most helpful replies ever, hot damn...

I would use the hags anyway... and not again for a while. But soon powerful hags will hear about this and start an large dark plot to get revenge... only at the end will the evil mastermind be revealed to be hag(s)

Sent from my SM-G930W8 using EN World mobile app

 

[Imaculata]

Wow! You may as well have written an entire adventure for me. Well done and thank you ��. That being said, I probably should have mentioned that I had been considering hags for this plot line but didn't think it was a good idea since I just used a hag in my last adventure. What do you think? Is it too redundant?

In that case I would try to tie the plots together, and add a bit of personal flavor to the abilities of the hags to mix things up.

 

[Denalz]

4) The Herbalist is a former Sorceress turned Druid who bought the deeds to her farm, but refuses to convert to the local faith resulting in them trying to accuse her of being a witch since she's the only practitioner in the area who can brew healing potions so they consider her a threat to their control over the community.

So have your PCs hired to deal with an evil sorceress maybe claim she cursed a pair of locals for turning her down then have them turn a corner and witness a Disney Princess singing to the birds sort of scene then have her see them then promptly turn and run with clear evidence they've been lied to as the hut they assumed she lived in has clearly been burnt down.

Any paladin using divine sense will immediately know she isn't evil and if they bother to try talking learn the local church is the villain ala Ladyhawke sort of deal!

This is an excellent idea and certainly not a direction I would have taken. Thank you for your input! If I don't use this one for my next adventure I'll certainly use it in the future

 

[Shiroiken]

Warning: many of my ideas are dark in nature, and may contain mature themes. Use with caution.

1. The undead plague is a literal plague, where infected villagers slowly turn into zombies (or ghouls or wights if higher level). The mindless horde then begins ravaging the survivors and other villagers. Those slain by the zombies (or whatever) become the same type of undead. Investigation leads them to discover the first village affected. Further investigation uncovers patient zero, who is a carrier (contagious, but immune him/herself). Patient zero came across an ancient cave and disturbed the temple to a forgotten god (demon/devil/whatever), who cursed the defiling offender.

Simply removing the curse stops patient zero from being infectious, but does nothing to stop the undead from infecting the fallen. The only way to cure the plague is to take patient zero back to the cave. There they discover a horrible choice: they can return all afflicted undead to normal, if they sacrifice patient zero in an ancient ritual to appease the god/devil/demon/etc. Or they can perform a ritual that will cleanse the temple, lifting the curse, but leaving all the undead as they are.

Bonus points for making patient zero a child

2. A hag that lives in the sewers has gone mad. She believes she's lost her child, and keeps kidnapping ones she thinks are hers. She takes them into her lair, where she treats them well, by her standards, but they cannot survive. Once they die, she ignores them, thinking her child has become lost again, and starts seeking out a new out.

Her lair is mostly guarded by traps, but also the children reanimated as skeletons and zombies. When they confront the hag, she's in a frenzy to "save her child" from the PCs. She should come off as a pathetic figure, rather than an evil one. Good PCs will try to find a way to help her, rather than just kill her.

3. The boundary between the Feywild and the Twist has thinned, causing travelers to pass from the mortal world to the feywild. Dark fey (Tome of Beasts is awesome for this, btw) have discovered this, and are "camping" at the entrance so they can torment mortals that unwittingly enter. They still have many of them alive, but all have been driven mad by the "games" played by the fey.

The only way to close the portal would be to escape from the dark fey, and beseech a good fey to seal the portal after they pass back to the mortal world.

4. This escalates quickly, like the Salem witch trials. A firebrand visiting priest is riling up the townspeople, calling the women witches, heathens, and heretics. In reality, this "priest" is actually a fiendish warlock, who's paying off his debt to his patron with the souls of the victims.

5. The wyvern raiders are actually guardians of the mountain, for within is trapped a god/devil/demon/elemental/etc that desires to lay waste all the land. The raiders' ancestors were responsible for binding this being, and they've vowed to defend against this evil at any cost. A recent plague (possibly sent by the being) caused most of the womenfolk to die, so they started taking wives from the nearby lands they normally raid for supplies (whom they consider inferior). The wives realize the necessity, and (most) have agreed to stay. The problem is they cannot prove anything they say is actually true...

6. The king has decided to use the orcs to hinder a rival neighbor. The mercenaries are instructed to drive the orcs away from "civilized" lands, which would push them into his neighbor's lands. When the orcs being raiding the neighbor, he plans to execute the mercenaries for "treason" for trying to instigate a war. Unfortunatly for the king, one of the orc warriors was successful, and has been filled with the spirit of Grumsh. He is now rallying the orcs to form the Ushtarak, and will not just raid the land, but forge an empire! If he's killed, the orc horde would fall back to their normal habit of killing each other as often as others, but getting close to him...

7. An ancient dragon has been cursed and cannot leave the island. It has figure out a way to pass part of this curse onto his hoard, and has scattered much of it about the island for adventures to find. Anyone who possesses this wealth while off the island will grow ill and die within a year, unless they part with every piece. Once 100,000 are dead, the dragon will be free of his curse, where he will track down his hoard. He's been cursed so long, he no longer remembers why he even wishes to leave the island, but it annoys him that he cannot.

 

[Denalz]

Warning: many of my ideas are dark in nature, and may contain mature themes. Use with caution.

1. The undead plague is a literal plague, where infected villagers slowly turn into zombies (or ghouls or wights if higher level). The mindless horde then begins ravaging the survivors and other villagers. Those slain by the zombies (or whatever) become the same type of undead. Investigation leads them to discover the first village affected. Further investigation uncovers patient zero, who is a carrier (contagious, but immune him/herself). Patient zero came across an ancient cave and disturbed the temple to a forgotten god (demon/devil/whatever), who cursed the defiling offender.

Simply removing the curse stops patient zero from being infectious, but does nothing to stop the undead from infecting the fallen. The only way to cure the plague is to take patient zero back to the cave. There they discover a horrible choice: they can return all afflicted undead to normal, if they sacrifice patient zero in an ancient ritual to appease the god/devil/demon/etc. Or they can perform a ritual that will cleanse the temple, lifting the curse, but leaving all the undead as they are.

Bonus points for making patient zero a child

2. A hag that lives in the sewers has gone mad. She believes she's lost her child, and keeps kidnapping ones she thinks are hers. She takes them into her lair, where she treats them well, by her standards, but they cannot survive. Once they die, she ignores them, thinking her child has become lost again, and starts seeking out a new out.

Her lair is mostly guarded by traps, but also the children reanimated as skeletons and zombies. When they confront the hag, she's in a frenzy to "save her child" from the PCs. She should come off as a pathetic figure, rather than an evil one. Good PCs will try to find a way to help her, rather than just kill her.

3. The boundary between the Feywild and the Twist has thinned, causing travelers to pass from the mortal world to the feywild. Dark fey (Tome of Beasts is awesome for this, btw) have discovered this, and are "camping" at the entrance so they can torment mortals that unwittingly enter. They still have many of them alive, but all have been driven mad by the "games" played by the fey.

The only way to close the portal would be to escape from the dark fey, and beseech a good fey to seal the portal after they pass back to the mortal world.

4. This escalates quickly, like the Salem witch trials. A firebrand visiting priest is riling up the townspeople, calling the women witches, heathens, and heretics. In reality, this "priest" is actually a fiendish warlock, who's paying off his debt to his patron with the souls of the victims.

5. The wyvern raiders are actually guardians of the mountain, for within is trapped a god/devil/demon/elemental/etc that desires to lay waste all the land. The raiders' ancestors were responsible for binding this being, and they've vowed to defend against this evil at any cost. A recent plague (possibly sent by the being) caused most of the womenfolk to die, so they started taking wives from the nearby lands they normally raid for supplies (whom they consider inferior). The wives realize the necessity, and (most) have agreed to stay. The problem is they cannot prove anything they say is actually true...

6. The king has decided to use the orcs to hinder a rival neighbor. The mercenaries are instructed to drive the orcs away from "civilized" lands, which would push them into his neighbor's lands. When the orcs being raiding the neighbor, he plans to execute the mercenaries for "treason" for trying to instigate a war. Unfortunatly for the king, one of the orc warriors was successful, and has been filled with the spirit of Grumsh. He is now rallying the orcs to form the Ushtarak, and will not just raid the land, but forge an empire! If he's killed, the orc horde would fall back to their normal habit of killing each other as often as others, but getting close to him...

7. An ancient dragon has been cursed and cannot leave the island. It has figure out a way to pass part of this curse onto his hoard, and has scattered much of it about the island for adventures to find. Anyone who possesses this wealth while off the island will grow ill and die within a year, unless they part with every piece. Once 100,000 are dead, the dragon will be free of his curse, where he will track down his hoard. He's been cursed so long, he no longer remembers why he even wishes to leave the island, but it annoys him that he cannot.

This is exactly the type of comment i was looking for! Thank you very much for your wonderful ideas ☺. You've got some real creativity about you. Oh, and prefer dark plots