Need some quest ideas

[ssuperboy95]

So the player's are heading into the slums of a major city that is populated mostly by goblins and illegitimate children of the highborn. It is mostly a disorganized place except for the few Drow that run the whole show underground (a powerful black market as well as other organized crime such as murder of important people and the like). Their main quest is to find the a leading drow and get some information from him, but i feel like i need things for them to do if they decide not to go directly there or things to do for the drow in order to convince him to share what he knows. They are halfway to level 2 and i want them there or at 3 by the end of the next session. Any ideas on what to do?

 

[Quickleaf]

Welcome to ENWorld!

What about a noble wanting to track down one of those bastard children?

Or an undercover detective who needs help doing shady business to keep his/her cover?

 

[Herobizkit]

In city areas, the best thing you can do is create "situations" rather than quests and see what the party does with them. This does require you to be able to make up some stuff on the fly, but you can sort of prepare with lists such as NPC name/race/class or job (if any), place names, and perhaps a few quick buildings and underground maps to use in a pinch.

For example, a situation might be "A group of Goblin street urchins have overturned a cart of food and are grabbing it en masse." Here the PCs can do any number of things, including nothing... but doing nothing isn't very heroic. Worse to worst, the cart owner might offer a quick reward to fast-acting heroes, which will surely catch the attention of your rogue leader...

Another one might be "The barkeep announces that the bar is closing early and everyone with rooms upstairs have to move somewhere else." Curious PCs will want to know why; perhaps the barkeep is being muscled to hide a secret meeting, or maybe he's being evicted himself, or maybe he's discovered his basement leads to a secret cache of onyx and he wants to have it extracted before anyone ELSE finds out... like maybe your rogue leader in question...

Speaking of mines, "a group of Svirneblin have seized the Ironworks near the mine located outside of town and holding the workers hostage." Svirfneblin are usually Good creatures and have no interest in hurting the captives, but Drow have a tendency to kill and ask questions later. The Svirfneblin also happen to unknowingly have a contact for your rogue leader. Final twist: they've all been marked for death by a Drow "hit squad"... as in, everyone, hostages included. Fast-acting PC's might be able to diffuse the situation and/or fend off the hit squad, whoch sure would look favorable to your drow rogue leader...

 

[ssuperboy95]

That sounds awesome! I think that could work really well for the things that they could do while in the city and to find the Drow they are looking for, but i think i also need something on how to gain his trust in order for him to tell them the information they need to know. I have a few ideas, but tell me what you think and any more would be super helpful:
1) The Drow has been put in charge of an operation to kill a noble. They could do that either by just straight up finding him and killing him, or going to a large party he is having in a few days and poison or assassinate him some way there.
2) One of his trusted goblins is going to do a large deal with some illegal paraphernalia (drugs or weapons etc) and the PC's are to guard him in case the deals go awry

PS It's not like he's acting alone. He would be part of a group of drow that has control over most of the slums, including the people. The citizens may fear them a bit, which is why they give idk taxes or something in exchange for becoming protectorates of the Drow

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

I'd at least sketch out some of these plots along with one or two incidents the PCs can get involved in/witness/instigate that ties into each one. They can then tie back to their major goals, allies, enemies, etc as you see fit. Drug dealers are moving in on some new turf, the watch is trying to catch them, the noble in charge of the watch is also being set up by rivals, etc.

 

[sabrinathecat]

How about a bastard child wanting to track down a noble parent, ostensibly for that "where do I come from", but actually the "child" is an assassin using the PCs as a way to get close to his/her target. Or maybe trying to establish claim to the noble's title and planning to bump off the "legitimate" heirs.

Guild war: two petty guilds are trying to gain control of the street from the other. "Innocents" are getting caught between them. The PCs can decide which will win, or wipe them both out.

An actual honest and true paladin is looking for her brother, a beneficent hospitaler who went missing in the dregs. The brother has been kidnapped by a guild, and manipulated into helping heal their enforcers, even during the middle of bloody skirmishes. The brother's life is in danger, and his faith and power are being abused and corrupted.

A group of youngsters have just sold their souls for power, have just come of age and are lashing out at everyone that ever hurt any of them. Build a party of different warlocks with maybe a Death Priest for support & healing. The party has to calm them down or kill them.

Likewise, a youngster has made a deal with an extraplanar being, but changed his/her mind. The Pact is due to become binding in 24 hours. Can the party find the being with the contract and get her released (by hook or by crook). Maybe this youngster just helped the party in some way (stopping someone from escaping, warning of an ambush, what have you), and asks the party to help break the contract as a reward.

Street urchin asks the party if they need a guide for 3 pieces of gold. If they turn the urchin down, have a couple short fights hit them (lvl-2 easy stuff, but annoying and draining resources) and a pick pocket go after them (don't take anything vital--let the party chase the cutpurse down and recover the property). After the second one, a different urchin asks if they need a guide. If they ever accept a guide, all such activity stops, as the guide gives subtle signals to the riff-raff to back off.

Find a scene of carnage, where the street fight just ended, and the beggars are scrambling to loot the bodies. Maybe even fighting each other.

Slave auction. "How much am I bid for this fine goblin? See her teeth? This one is a prime breeder, guaranteed to improve your herd. Look at these muscles. She can do plenty of work too. And these claws are good if you just want something to throw into an arena. Now, this young kobold has been gentled to act as a house servant. You'll get no trouble with this one, so long as you keep a good lash. Just in: this batch of svirfneblin. They may smell bad, but they are good brute labor, so long as you have a sharp whip and sharper eyes. Don't let those pleading eyes fool you--these are no surface gnomes..." (but actually, they are, captured in a surface raid 3 days ago, starved, and forced to wear actual svirfneblin rags. Their tongues have been branded, which hampers their speech until they can get proper care, or at least 3 months have gone by.