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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Castellan" data-source="post: 1990003" data-attributes="member: 639">I've recently started a new 1st-level campaign that is currently city-based. In yesterday's game, the players (there are three of them) were asked to track down and capture a criminal who was known to have committed armed-robbery.They quickly located a run-down building where he was living, but it was on fire when they got there. The local constabulary drafted them into the "bucket brigade" to help them put out the fire, and they quickly volunteered to go inside the building to make sure everyone had gotten out safely (and to locate their mark). They found their quarry, drunk and passed out in a room that was half-engulfed in flames. During the effort to pull him out, one of the PCs was attacked by a small fire elemental. They slew the elemental, rescued/captured their man, and returned to the building to save a nearly-dead halfling. Afterward, they remained at the site to help put out the flames.Here's the thing.... I had really only planned to put the fire elemental in as a challenging encounter. I figured trying to rescue someone who'd passed out, while avoiding flames and fire elemental attacks would be fun. It was. But afterward, the players spent a lot of time contemplating why an elemental would be in a small fire of this type (it only encompassed half of the building they were in, and did not spread to adjacent buildings), and are interested in investigating whether the elemental was just drawn to the flames, or was summoned there intentionally.They've already done some preliminary investigation, including questioning the rescued halfling about his neighbors, asking local officials about their investigation (which is going nowhere, since it was in a bad part of town), and talking with the woman who was renting out the apartments. They've learned the name of a tenant whose apartment appears to have been at the center of the fire, but the session ended before they had a chance to try to locate him.Now, I love it when my players do this. In the vast majority of the campaigns I've run for these folks, their musings have given me ideas I never would have thought up on my own. And it's always a lot of fun for them to think they've figured things out or to hear their cries of confusion when the plot isn't what they had originally thought. But I'm stuck with this one. So, I could use some ideas.1) What is the significance of the fire elemental? Was it summoned, or was it just a fluke that it was there?2a) If it was summoned, then by whom and for what purpose?2b) If it wasn't summoned, is there any other interesting possibility for plot, here?3) Might the investigation into the "missing tenant" lead to anything? Is he responsible for the elemental's appearance? The fire? Both? Neither?The two mysteries need not be linked, but I would love to reward the players with a bit of a mystery of some kind, even if it's a purely harmless one. Perhaps it leads them to a new patron, or an ally, instead of some devious plot to overthrow the local government.What kind of fun 1st-2nd level plots can come out of these two mini-mysteries?Thanks!PS -- I'm going to have to steal an idea from Piratecat and take a tape recorder to the games from now on. These players hurl juicy plot hooks back and forth at each other so rapidly, I can't write them down fast enough! Is that cool, or what?</blockquote>

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