A party of planar travelers is following one of the roads between the gate towns in the Outlands when it finds the aftermath of a large battle. Minor fiends lie scattered around the battleground like dead leaves. The party also sees a number of perfect white feathers among the carnage.
If they stop to investigate, they will find a trail of blood and feathers leading off into a small gully. In the gully the party finds a beautiful human chained to a rock. Large spikes made from greenish iron pierce the deva's wings and keep them secured to the rock.
If the party takes the time to help the deva, they discover that he/she has been overseeing a group of powerful mortals investigating a pact between the evil dragons of the PCs prime and the fiends. His/her agents had delivered proof of the plot to the deva and he/she was on her way to rouse the forces of good.
Unfortunately, the fiends waylaid the deva on its way home and have stolen the proof. Will the party attempt the dangerous task of retreiving the proof before the fiendish troop can make its way into the gate town leading to their infernal plane?
A town at the base of the mountain has been experiencing a strange event: flocks of birds have been sitting on window sills apparently listening to people. These birds are also following people in and out of town. All of these birds have come from the mountain. A group of adventurers was up the mountain but has not returned.
An avoral believes there is a slave trade ring in the city, but he does not know for sure. He has been asking the birds to go into the city and look for the slavery ring. The first group of adventurers who went up found this winged creature and attacked, so he defended himself. What will the next group of adventurers do?
The adventurers come upon a ruined church in the forest. The party cleric (or paladin) sees that this church was dedicated to an ancient god of light (LG god). In the middle of ruins, where the alter once stood, is a an elf-like figure bathed in light: a ghaele. He stands and looks at the party, saying, "By the purifying light of Azridel, you have answered my summons. We must act quickly, for the Armies of Darkness are nearly here."
What does the party do?
The setup: The city has seen a large increase in the number of lycanthropes within the city walls. The PC's goal is to eliminate the threat of the shapechangers.
The specific encounter: There is an attack by werewolves (and others, like were-dogs, were-hyenas, etc.) on a large gathering of the inhabitants of the city. This could be a fair, parade, marketplace, anything. During the attack, the city's mage guild summons several hound archons to combat the lycanthropes (or a group of Hound Archons decide to get involved themselves.) The hound archons are fighting in canine form when the PCs get to the scene of the attack.
Not only does the party have to fight lycanthropes, but they have to do so without injuring the civilians left in the area, and they have to move quickly to stop more people from being killed/infected in the attack. The bad thing is, they may inadvertently attack the hound archons, not knowing who/what they are; the hounds would probably react badly to being attacked by these newcomers, not knowing which side the PCs are on. This presents the possibility of a three-way melee between the hound archons, the PCs, and the lycanthropes.
A evil human noble has been looking for exotic equipment. One such item was a lantern, whose light comes from a captured lantren archon. Now the higher forces of the upper planes want the archon back and hire the PCs to rescue it. There's one problem though: the noble has powerful politcal connections so he can't be slain, and he wants an outragous price for the lantern. So the party either needs to come up with a huge sum, or find some way to blackmail the noble. Either way will not be easy.
A planetar, having a personal vendetta against a Pit Fiend, has begun a war of proxies on the material plane. The PCs are approached by a minion of the planetar, in hopes of recruiting them for the war. However, although many of the minions of the Pit Fiend are evil, they seem to have no ulterior motive other than fighting the minions of the planetar. They are not committing any evil acts. The PCs realize this (hopefully) and hopefully try to end this pointless and futile war, which is based on some slight from thousands of years ago, either by getting the two outsiders to take their war back to the outer planes or by ending the feud.
A very ancient god of nature is going to stop the destruction of the land. He sends down his solar to stop all who defile the land. This solar has taken great zeal in his task. The solar sees the cutting down of trees for lumber and the tilling of fields as destruction of the land. A few small villages in the north have been destroyed. Survivors describe a 9-foot-tall golden-skinned man with gleaming white wings and commanding voice killing farmers.
Adventures are dispatched, thinking it is a demon disguised as a solar, only to discover to their horror that it is an honest-to-goodness solar killing those who defile the land.
One of the characters is Geased/Quested by an enemy wizard to carry a misshapen lump of lead. The only immediately visible hinderance to the character is the added weight of the 15 lbs of lead. The lump of lead, though, is actually the trumpet / greatsword of a trumpet archon, which was stolen by the wizard years before.
To quote the MM: "Woe betide any thief caught with [the trumpet]."
A local druid has come under an evil taint and encourages some normally reclusive centaurs to indulge in some very tart berries. The berries have fermented and the centaurs are on a drunken bowhunting binge, poaching the lands of a noble the PCs know.
Stopping them is good; stopping them without hurting them is better; stopping them without hurting them and keeping them out of conflict with the known noble is better still.
An ancient shrine to a long-forgotten god holds the only clue to the mystery the PCs seek to resolve. When they arrive at the shrine, it seems abandoned -- except for the Chaos Beast that has waited eons for its sleeping/dead master to awaken. Imagine its surprise when it finds out the PCs are not its master...
The architect of a municipal building in the capital of a small kingdom has decided to adorn it with small stone statues of chimeras. Unfortunately, a none-too-bright actual chimera has taken up residence in the bell tower and is defending the statues as if they were its children, not to mention eating some townsfolk. The architect would have been punished for his faux pas, but he was the unwitting first victim...
The escape tunnel for the thieves' guild called the Unseen goes through an abandoned mine. In the mine lives a choker who attacks anyone who goes through the mine. The thieves have no idea that it has taken up residence.
A civil war amongst the drow has forced a chuul away from the cave mouth it normally inhabitted. It has swum for the better part of a year through underground caverns, desperately searching for a way back to the surface. It has found a way out in the series of flooded caverns that connect a small town's 7 wells, and the waterbearing children and ladies have started to disappear.
Of course, killing it is one thing; finding its underground layer where it has years of drowish treasure hidden is another.
Driven from the Underdark by a band of adventurers, a family of cloakers have hit upon a scheme to revenge themselves on the entirety of the local human community. Linking up with an unscrupulous merchant, the cloakers have formed a small band of assassins. The merchant either takes contracts on certain people or else simply chooses his victims based on how rich they are. He then, using all his persuasive and negotiating powers, sells them "a beautifully made, brand-new cloak! So cheap only due to overstock!"
What happens when the customer takes his new garment home is too gory to describe here, but the cloaker returns, delivering a portion of the riches to the merchant, and keeping a portion for itself. The bodies are beginning to pile up, and the watch is clueless.
Roving adventurers have managed to kill off so many cockatrices that the only female for leagues around is now being held captive by a local alchemist, who does hideous things with its droppings. The female, ready for her once-a-decade breeding has emitted a powerful pheromone that has attracted every cockatrice in the county. As a group, they are converging on the gates of the town as the PCs approach, deperate to get to the only female around...or anyone who has been in the alchemist's shop recently and may bear the slight scent of the female.
Deep in the jungle are the ruins of the ancient city of Tei-en-qa. In the center of the city is a large ziggurat that has been overgrown with so much vegetation that it looks like a small hill (Spot check DC 20 to notice its symmetrical shape). The ancient guardian of the ziggurat is a couatl who will seek to keep interlopers out.