Help me flesh out this plot fragment?

[Darklone]

Well

I'd go with several old buddies of the father.

Start the chars as youngsters in a small nice little quiet village. Arrange the fathers death as something strange, he came home late at night pale as death, next morning he couldn't get up and died in the afternoon. Strange lights can be seen on the sky in the night.

At his burial, several strangers arrive. They wear dark cloaks and weapons and don't seem to like each other but pretend not to know any of the others. One or two of them might kill each other in the next days without witnesses or maybe the players accidently drop by as two of them seem to start a duel but leave as the PCs drop by. The house is searched by silent robbers who don't take the cash or jewels.

Let the players find the map accidently (or per magic... perhaps an old painting at the wall and the son stumbles into the painting ?)

As soon as the players or one of them gets the map, the strangers head to the house. Let his friends overtake them on the way there or let the strangers hinder each other to get them.

And there you got a wild goose chase. A nice idea for some magical effects would be an old bag of the father with magical gimmicks. E.g. magical items that the players can't use actively, charms, keys, a compass perhaps ?

 

[Buttercup]

The idea of the magical wand which transports the party to a place on a map is cool. I may use it some time.

A bag of mysterious magical tricks, eh? Would these thingies become useable as the party increases in level, or was the father a charlatan snake-oil salesman type?

Now, if every time the party talked to someone about the map, that person came down with an acute case of dead the next day, I'd say the PCs would start to get a bit nervous, eh? And what if they found an old friend who was a sea captain. He gets killed too, but he's got a parrot that talks, and it keeps repeating place names from the map. Squawk! Gold Worms, squawk! Ochimo Oasis, squaaaawk!

 

[Darklone]

Jo

Killing NPCs after the players talked to them is always nice. Should give them the feeling they missed to ask something important.

Be careful about spells like "Speak with dead" though.

About the bag: You can put inside whatever they need. Consider the players as villageboys. Would they recognize a wand of fireball if they saw it? Probably no. This is especially funny if they got no wiz or sorcerer but only a rogue who tries to use the items now and then with his skill... It's usually good to make your escape, no matter what happens.