After reading the full summaries...I can't decide on the lower level adventures. For those who can't access the full summaries....
Cross City Race
The adventure begins upon the adventurer’s arrival within a sizeable city or metropolis. The city is alive with talk about a special race across the city; one held every year or two, to deliver a letter from one side of the city to the other as quickly as possible. While it started out as a simple competition between message carriers to settle a dispute, it is now open to anyone to enter; though no magical transportation or killing is allowed, the race is otherwise a glorious free-for-all of sneakiness, athleticism and brute force, all to claim the prize: a sizeable money pot and magical item donated by the city treasury to encourage the competition.
Adventure in a Nutshell: The adventure itself is the race, made up of an interlinked series of encounters along the route: including sabotage, traps, ambushes and other underhanded and sneaky obstacles, as well as the terrain and daily life of the city itself getting in the way. The intended theme would almost be that of a car chase in a modern cop show, complete with exploding melons, cardboard boxes and chicken cages getting devastated en route. The adventurers may spring their own traps and obstacles for the other racers, and the various Skill and Ability checks—as well as the conditions and the route taken—add or subtract to the time taken to try and claim the prize.
The various encounters interlock with each other in a similar fashion to the old Choose Your Own Adventure books and could, conceivably, be run through by a single player. Failing to jump a roof-gap in one encounter, for example, might drop you down into an encounter on a ground route.
The final goal of the competition is the guardhouse atop the gate on the opposite side of the city, but the door is locked and the climax is a death-defying climb to deliver the letter and claim the prize. A failure in this could lead to a nasty fall, especially with other competitors trying to push you off, pouring oil over the stones, or otherwise doing things to get in the way.
The city treasury may have put up the prize for a reason. A proven, capable and ruthless messenger may be just what they need to take a letter or item securely, safely and swiftly from their city to another. What the package is may not be clear, but it may well be important enough for other people to pursue. With that as a hook, this adventure may act as a springboard to other adventures and a way to get the adventurers in the good graces of the ruling powers in several cities.
The Feast
The Feast takes its inspiration from The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allen Poe, and contemporary zombie movies like Dawn of the Dead.
Adventure in a Nutshell: The characters are invited to the tower-like townhouse of the decedent merchant Lord Delius Thad (CE half-elf aristocrat/rogue). Thad is involved in all sorts of unsavory side ventures, including slavery and drug smuggling. The characters are invited because the bored noble likes to be seen with rich, powerful or popular people—a smattering of all have of which have been invited to the party.
While the town’s rich and famous enjoy themselves, the rest of the poor harbor town is being menaced by a zombie infestation… the cause of which can be indirectly attributed to the character’s host. Thad has found an untapped source of the herbs used to make mordayn vapor (dreammist, Book of Vile Darkness). The island is also home to a small population of rot reavers (Monster Manual III), one of which stowed away on board one of his ships and arrived in town within the last month. If the news were to get out, it could lead to some awkward questions by those few township authorities this decadent noble hasn’t paid off.
Thad has one other problem, however—the creature is in his townhouse when the party begins. It stalks though the galleries and climbs along the outside preying on party guests and converting them in to his undead minions. The zombies created by this rot reaver are slightly more powerful than normal. Perhaps it is a reaction between the mordayn herb and the monster’s necromantic powers but, the zombies are bloodthirsty, fast and almost unkillable (Libris Mortis)!
The Salvagers
In an ancient era, there once lay a great subterranean kingdom of deep dwarves called Gilflode, that grew fat upon immense wealth garnered from mining the regions rich ore deposits and weapon manufacturing. During the orc wars, demand for their high quality weapons forced a drastic increase in production. Pit bosses threw caution aside in favor of speed, and in their haste unlucky miners struck a pocket of dense toxic gas. Thick gouts plumed into the city, engulfing everything and poisoning those inhabitants unable to flee. The gas settled, covering all but the city's highest rooftops, trapping refugees against the high ceilings and stalactites of the massive cavern.
Adventure in a Nutshell: Over two centuries have passed since the demise of the fabled dwarven city of Gilflode, its relevance faded and forgotten by the short-lived races of the region. During this time, the city's refugees built a new and peaceful life in relative seclusion. Living above the gas in the upper cave crags and upon the roofs of their former kingdom, the deep dwarves guarded their ancestral home. Soon, they developed strange “diving” apparatus, permitting them to descend into the gases and salvage ancestral artifacts.
But all has changed since the recent passing of their headman, Nalvor the Stern. The contested rule fell to his paternal twins, brother Gartok Nalvorson and sister Haetig Nalvorsdottir. Gartok's extreme ambition is bent on resurrecting New Gilflode to its former glory, while his sister wishes to maintain the peaceful and independent status quo. Unable to come to an acceptable conclusion, Gartok threatened to take the city by force and lead it against the inhabitants of the surrounding lands (an impossible task equivalent to a death wish for his city). When last seen, he and his supporters stole 'diving' equipment and plunged deep into the lower gas-filled chambers of Old Gilflode in hopes of finding ancient weapons to launch his revolution.
Unable to war directly on her brother and his supporters, Haetig's growing desperations have prompted her to break the city's longtime isolation and seek help from the outside world. She desperately needs outsiders who can solve her dilemma discreetly without exposing the existence of her city. But neither Haetig nor Gartok realize Old Gilflode is no longer a lifeless ruin. Deep within the gas-filled depths grows a kaorti cyst whose twisted alien physiologies find the environment perfectly suited to their needs.
The PCs don primitive breathing respirators (air tubes, masks, and goggles) and descend into the toxic gas filled ruins of Old Gilflode. They must try to track down and capture Gartok and his band of rebels before the dwarf launches a revolution that would ultimately expose his small city to the more powerful kingdoms of the sunlit lands. To accomplish this, they also deal with kaorti, currently salvaging Old Gilflode for arcane treasures and hunting any creatures they come across. In the gas-filled ruins, the PCs encounter hostile dwarves, kaotri (a violent and evil race of outsiders from the far realm) and their aberrant creations including dwarves hideously transformed into kaorti thralls. Also lurking in the depths stalk a few undead and constructs, remnants of the city's previous inhabitants.
leaning towards the salavagers....but the race sounds cool too.
edit: I voted for the race...it seemed the most unique
