4th+ level city adventures

[Mercurius]

Hi All,
My group is a couple sessions away from finishing Forge of the Mountain King (DCC#54) and I'm starting to plan for what's next. They'll be 4th level and returning to the local city. I'm wanting to run a short-to-medium city adventure next, to take them from 4th to 6th level or so...any suggestions? I'm considering checking out Scions of Punjar but am open to anything. I have a few mega-plot ideas that I could weave in, but everything is up in the air at the moment. I'd prefer 4ed but I'm open to converting--or at least idea-mining--a prior edition adventure.

If it helps, the context is this: The city is medium-sized (pop. 15-20,000) and fast growing--it lies on major trade routes in a points of light-esque setting, and is very much an "adventurer's town": a major trade is adventuring itself--the Seeker's Guild is the most powerful force in the city and trades adventure leads, maps and such for a cut of loot. There is also a Waterdeep-style undermountain complex which the Seeker's Guild charges admission for that extends into a much more extensive underdark world, and various demi-human enclaves surrounding the city.

The PCs return with their first major expedition under their belts; the Seeker's Guild takes note, perhaps trying to gently coerce (but not force) them into working for them. I'm thinking of throwing a hook in whereby they have to pretend they are working for the Seeker's Guild while they are really working for someone else and/or themselves. After our first adventure, which was a strict dungeoncrawl, I want to introduce some intrigue, role-playing, etc, but feel somewhat out of my depth as I haven't DMed regularly in decades and am looking for ideas.

Thanks!

 

[Frostmarrow]

I have not read Pirates of Freeport but have fond memories of Freeport during the 3E era. Shock full of intrigue and exploration. Here's a link to Pirates of Freeport, a systemless sourcebook that might provide you with ideas.

Other than that I can recommend Red Hand of Doom for it contains the city of Brindol in detail and the environs. This is also for 3E but that doesn't matter as long as the maps are pretty, don't you think?

I have read Sellswords of Punjar and found it to be pretty good. Not much intrigue there, though.

It might be fruitful to look into WFRP, especially the trilogy for the new edition. The trilogy features three distinct cities some with underground adventuring to boot.

 

[Lord Xtheth]

city type adventures are sometimes hard to run, especially with groups that are used to dungeon crawls. My suggestions however are:

Try having a thieves guild take somthing the party needs, They need to find where it went and get it back. Throw in a roof-top chase and a fight for some great scenery.

Local children have gone missing, people fear they went into an old mining shaft to play "Papers & Paycheques" parents think it's cult related, and fear that the kids will "go too far" in their roleplaying and throw themselves out of "office windows" if they lose their "job".

A strange man has negotiated the sale of the land the town is on, and wants to claim it, but only the land, not the houses or people.

ORC ATTACK!

just as a few ideas off the top of my head.

 

[Treebore]

If you don't mind using 3E stuff, "Lost City of Barakus" is an excellent one to go with. So is "City State of the Invincible Overlord". Both have tons of intrigue.

 

[The Lost Muse]

What about running the Night of Dissolution or the Banewarrens?