Three Plot Hooks Per Monster

[GuardianLurker]

Stone Giants:

1) A peaceful tribe of stone giants has suddenly gone to war, and is advancing on the capital, at the head of a army of bandits and mercenaries. [Hidden secret: The leader is controlled by an intelligent magic item that was originally part of the kingdom's regalia but was lost 20 years ago, along with the then ruler.]

2) Magical stone beasts have started ransacking the area. The local leaders hire the characters to find the cause and stop it. [Hidden secret: the beasts are sculptures animated by a greedy wizard, who kidnapped the local stone giant tribe's best sculptor and shaman.]

3) The stone giants have taken up lawn bowling. Unfortunately, the flattest fields around are the farmer's.

 

[Matt Black]

Dryad

The PCs find themselves travelling in the same caravan as a sorcerer and his
mute servant. They soon learn that the servant is a dryad, enslaved when the
sorcerer transmuted her tree into the staff which he now wields.

 

[Matt Black]

Cockatrice

The village crone sets up her stall every market day, selling the biggest, tastiest
hens' eggs in all the countryside, until one day a farmer's wife is found turned to
stone, with two halves of a hatched shell in her petrified hand. Proceed to the PCs'
hunt for the errant chick, and eventually back to find the crone's monstrous coop.

 

[muhcashin]

Otyugh

Plague has struck an entire village. The town elders have no idea what has spawned the disease. There are no vermin such as rats to spread the illness. The PCs can discover that in a cavern complex linked to the town's well, a filthy disease-ridden otyugh has decided to make a home.

 

[The Serge]

Mindflayers: Over the past few years, the King has ordered the greatest Dukes and heroes of the Kingdom to scour the world for the remnants of a long, lost civilization. Now, these heroes have returned with lost knowledge that, unbeknownst to them, will reawaken a hideous, alien evil of an earlier age and the "king" new about it all along!

 

[The Serge]

The Tarresque: The mighty naval nation across the sea, historical rivals to the Kingdom, have recently seen a great deal of activity in their major cities. Now, waves of refugees have fled to the Kingdom screaming of the Beast of the End of the World is headed for the Kingdom! (Key evil music here)

 

[The Serge]

Pixies: The local baron is curious as to why his poor cobblers and woodcutters are suddenly producing three times to the work in half the time! Since the last think he wants is the Duke nosing in and demanding more money, he asks the PCs to investigate.

 

[The Serge]

Duegar: Miners across the Kingdom have been turning up dead, often bludgeoned to death in an excution style manner. Of their possessions, the only things taken are those things made of pure, unadulterated gold.

 

[alsih2o]

doppleganger- a doppleganger with a few lvls in sorcerer has taken a mimic as a familiar. he sells it to the p.c.'s as an item they need/want and he and his shape-shifting buddies use it's telepathic link to follow the adventurers, pouncing when the moment(and treasure lvl) is right

 

[mmadsen]

Vampires -- The armies of good advance upon a stronghold of evil. Suddenly, the nearby city is "alive" with hundreds of newborn Vampires -- all volunteers accepting undeath over death in combat.