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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Shiroiken" data-source="post: 7199685" data-attributes="member: 6775477">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  <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devil.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":devil:" title="Devil    :devil:" data-shortname=":devil:" />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.</blockquote>

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