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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Grumbleputty" data-source="post: 7284054" data-attributes="member: 31985">The NecromancerThe party encounters a small rural village, where the locals beseech them for help. They explain that a foul necromancer and his band of evil dwarves have been working to resurrect their dread deity in the hills a few miles away, and are responsible for the disappearances of several innocents. The townsfolk have staged a few guerilla raids against the necromancer and his forces, but lacked the strength to mount a real assault against their foe- until the party's arrival, that is.In truth, the "Necromancer" is a wealthy scholar from a far-off land who has found through Divination the bones of a massive, monstrous creature from legend. He has hired a tribe of dwarves to help excavation the massive skeleton- the dwarves, who were facing hard times after exhausting their mine, are glad for the paying work. The disappearances of villagers is completely unrelated to the scholar and his dwarven hirelings- if appropriate to your main plot, the missing villagers may have fallen victim to the Big Bad of your campaign, so what seems like a side-quest may actually be a part of the main plot after all.  As an added wrinkle, even though the scholar's intentions are sincere, that doesn't mean his excavations might not awaken something terrible after all.The HuntCrossing through the wilderness, the party falls prey to the trap of a Rakshasha and his Lamia consorts. He explains that he is hosting a banquet of other powerful evil beings, and for the evening's sport they intend to hunt the party. He will outline a set of preliminary rules for the contest- basically, whoever can reach the edge of his estate is free to go. If the Rakshasha is vastly more powerful than the party, good uses of skill checks may convince him to accept some handicaps to make the contest more sporting. There may be some other people being hunted at the same time- some may be potential allies, some may be out to betray the party to save their own hides, and some may be hapless innocents that put the party in a difficult situation.The Dryad's TollThe fastest route toward the party's destination takes them through some enchanted woods. There is a path running through the woods which is smooth and safe, with resting spots along the way- it is as comfortable as overland travel gets. The Dryad who oversees the forest, however, demands a toll be paid by all who use the path- not in coin, but in blood for her growing garden of carnivorous plants. Where the blood comes from is not something she worries about too much. Her small army of pixies guarantee that those who refuse to pay the toll and still use the path are harassed every step of the way, while her faithful band of centaurs ensure that leaving the path is not an option.The AnthillsThe party finds a series of interesting ant mounds among some rocky plains. While of ordinary size, these ants appear more intelligent than most, with tiny cart tracks snaking between the mounds and minuscule chimneys suggesting hearth fires or even forges beneath the earth. The ants appear to be industriously separating gold flecks from the sand, and it appears they've built their colonies above a vein of gold.If the party aids the ants in some way (leaving them food, for example), the ants will reward them with enough grains of gold to be the equivalent of a gold coin. If the party can find a way to telepathically ask the ants a question, they will spell out one-word answers with their bodies to any question they might reasonably know the answer to. Should anyone harm one of the anthills, they will instantly be magically shrunk down to the size of a grain of rice, and will have to contend with the now very angry (and proportionally pony-sized) ants.</blockquote>

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