I have some ingredients help me put them together

[Stone Angel]

I introduced a plot hook last session and I dropped a few cryptic clues. A couple sessions the PC's were at a tournament, that contained a circus amidst the tournament action. This circus was actually led by a Vampire who incited a troll attack. The party encountered one vampire spawn but the circus had already skipped town. After a quest to reclaim one of PC's families keep from a horde of Ratmen. On returning to the main city and backbone of my campaign, they find several towns depleted of life, actually slaughtered. These towns were bloodbaths and always a flyer from the circus. Upon returning to the city they find that (a) the circus is to perform for the fears eve festival. A man shows up named Adam he is an Aslan a homebrewed race that kind of look like a cross between a lion and man. Anyway after speaking with the PC's he gives them the weekly flier the city provides saying "I have written the path in the tongue of fire, though it shall also fall on the footsteps of the dead". The PC's took a flame to the flyer and a map shows up.

The map showed four things:

A line in the general direction of Northwest with the city as a starting point.

A giant eye

Three men (to the side of the path), possibly a landmark.

Then a great sphere with that written beside it.

Now I know I want the PC's to chase the evil circus from town to town. I just don't know what these points on the map will mean I have a couple of ideas I just wonder if you guys had any ideas.

 

[Sagan Darkside]

A line in the general direction of Northwest with the city as a starting point.

Perhaps the line leads to the lair of the place where the circus vampire turned into a vampire in the first place. It is there they can learn about the creature and some possible weakness.

A giant eye

A hermit who lives besides the road- a very helpful man, but also a spy for the vampire- reporting all who pass.. especially those who look like they want to be heroes.

Three men (to the side of the path), possibly a landmark.

Three petrified men?

Statues to three great long forgotten generals?

A set of iron gallows- with room to hang three men. The greatest villians in the country's history have all been hanged there.

Then a great sphere with that written beside it.

The circus's home base is a giant chasm- so deep, sun light does not reach the bottom. It is here he brings the children he kidnaps from the slaughtered villages- breeding them like cattle as they get older.

Now I know I want the PC's to chase the evil circus from town to town.

Sounds like fun- good luck.

You should consider monster scavangers being in the towns he slaughters- goblins, kobolds, etc.

Once the vamp knows he is being followed, he could set a trap.

A young "girl" screaming for help at the top of an old wooden church.. some zombies meandering on the main floor. As they reach the top level- she rings the bell, and the hiding charmed people light the church on fire- and attack the party.

SD

 

[reason]

>A giant eye

An intelligent, vastly powerful beholder-like entity (trapped in its present location?) that trades victims and twisted magics with the circus, but is not necessarily hostile to the PCs nor particularly friendly towards the vampire. It may give clues to the circus' eventual destination.

>Three men (to the side of the path), possibly a landmark.

Three great statues carved from a single monolithic stone mass, each pointing in a different direction. The area is used for rituals by various wizardly types, including the vampire and a reclusive hermit who dwells in a cave nearby. The hermit sees the vampire and his circus as a defilement of this magical spot, and so may be willing to help (provided the PCs can convince him they aren't more of the same).

>Then a great sphere with that written beside it.

A rock hill was actually carved into a great sphere in times unknown, about 3/4 of above ground. It's a good 300' high. A tower once stood atop it, but that is a ruined stub. It is a place with an evil reputation, said to be demon-haunted. A stairway is carved into the rock, spiraling round the sphere. The circus performs for no-one atop the sphere in the dead of night, lit by magical fire and offering devotions to something wicked that sits atop the stub of the ruined tower...

Reason