Looking for idea seeds for a three part adventure

[Shadowslayer]

Howdy all. I have a game going on with three fairly new players. I know what kind of adventure I want to do with them next. Strangely, I've got writer's block and am looking for some idea seeds. Im sure I'd be able to come up with something eventually, but thought I'd pick the brains of the ENWorld collective.

Essentially, its an adventure where they have to go to 3 different places and collect one maguffin from each. (3 gems, 3 keys, 3 parts of a map....something...they don't have to be all the same thing either.)

My questions are
-what are the three things they need to collect
-what happens when they get all three
-how or why are the 3 objects where they are

Other thoughts
-it cant be too far ranging. All of them are within a region somewhat like the Nentier Vale.
-Heavy on wilderness encounters.
-Sort of looking to avoid "greed" and "Thwart monstrous plan and save the town" as PC motivators. (Although Im flexible on that)
-the three objects can't make up a magic item that I'll be sorry I gave them. (However maybe they'd have a patron who hires them for it)
-They're 3rd level.

I know you guys don't owe me, but Id appreciate any ideas or nuggets I can find.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

An illness not seen in the land in over 50 years has returned and has begun afflicting children and young adults who have never been exposed to it. Last time it was seen, magic rituals were able to cure indvidual cases of the affliction, but it was found that the rituals did not prevent the person from becoming ill again and the plague continued to circulate widely. An Order of Druids from the east devised a poultice that both cured the illness, and seemed to protect people from becoming ill, but not having been seen in so long, nobody recalls how the poultice was made.

The PCs are hired to venture east and find one of the Druids of this Order to obtain the forumla for the poultice. Once there, they find a frail old woman who can give them the formula, but of course two of the components needed are diffcult to obtain.

One of them is the leaves of the Sarlawood tree. The trees have been eradicated from settled, cultivated lands as they prevent other crops from growing nearby. The old Druid knows of a grove of them located in the wilds to the north. The leaves can be fresh or dried, but you must not use fallen leaves that may be contaminated with a mold that renders them useless. A large sack of them would be enough to make poultice for a small city or a several towns.

The second component is the shell of stirge eggs. Three-score eggshells would be the amount needed for a small cities worth of poultice.

 

[Steel_Wind]

When I read the first post, I had immediately thought when you said "wilderness" for herbs and potion ingredients for some cure.

The response above keys on that idea very nicely already - so there is no need to repeat the same idea. Vary the herbs/monsters necessary to match the strengths of the party and you are good to go.

 

[Shadowslayer]

Hey that sounds pretty good. Might be able to run with that.

Funny you mention a Druid. I was actually thinking of an encounter with something like the "Shade of Allanon" from the Shannara books. Maybe he could be the one to point them toward the elderly druid.

Neat ideas.

 

[Hawke]

Why not get pretty basal with the focus on "three."

Triplet in Music or do some other sort of musical/waltz theme. Perhaps they're collecting some musical pattern to awake a sleeping princess or perhaps a beast to save the kingdom or something.

Okay... what about getting into math/geometry. Have some math clues to triangulate the location of the various others and make the items not exactly things, but mathematical clues that allows them to find a final location.