A covey of hags, one sea, one annis and one green, are the only creatures that know the location of a powerful lost artifact, one that could raise its possesser to godhood under the proper conditions. All three of them desire the item, and all of them continually quest for the item while simultaneously trying to sabotage the others. Will the PCs follow the hags to the item and try to claim it? What will happen if a hag manages to attain divinity?
The wizard explained to the adventurers that one of the most special holidays for the halfling is Pie Day. This is an annual celebration held in autumn, when the various fruits (apples, pears, etc) are the ripest. If a sampling of body fluids was taken from a halfling on this particular day a Potion of Halfling Control could be made at twice the normal potency given the increase in adreneline and the vast consumption of fruits in the halfling's system. "Great," the human sarcatically grumbled to the elf "We get to go collect halfling spit. I want a raise."
On a small island chain populated by harpies, a civil war is brewing. One faction claims that the traditional harpy way is to torment the wicked. The other claims that the traditional harpy way is to lure sailors to their dooms with their beguiling voices. Can the PCs stop a harpy war from engulfing the island?
His lordship accepts your apology for that "little incident", and stops talking about executions. Instead he "offers" you a job, training his puppies... He neglects to mention they are hell hound puppies, and that the parents want them back.
Assuming the party does not end up roasted, they may earn a valuable, if hot-tempered, assistant or two. (Of course the party paladin may well insist the party go to the extra effort of persuading them to be Good doggies as well as willing to work with the party.)
Slick Eddie has a problem. His small time criminal world just got turned upside down. All he wanted to do was roll a drunk coming back home from some fancy-pants nobleman's ball. Problem is he picked the wrong drunk to roll. Slick Eddie now has an ordinary looking pack with what looks to be a perl the size of a human head. Slick Eddie doesn't have the brains of an archmage, but you don't need those kind of brains to know that magic is afoot in a situation like this. And Slick Eddie wants out before the real heat comes down on his neck.
Duke Esterworth also has a problem. After hiring mercenaries/adventurers to capture a hippogriff egg, he unwisely showed it off to a few of his fellow worthies over sherry after the summer opera. Then he compounded the error by talking an evening constitutional in the summer air. The back of his head exploded in pain and now his egg is gone. That egg was meant for his stables and it would be ... embarassing to have lost it.
The players need to make Eddie happy and the Duke happy. This can be very complicated based on the makeup of the party. Druids may want to free the hippogriff, knights may want to pummel Eddie and give it to the Duke, Rogues may want to buy it off of eddie and sell it.
If the Duke isn't happy within two days, he'll get his other band of adventures to find the culprit (They'll find Eddie magically.) and kill him for the egg. If Eddie isn't happy within two days he'll toss the egg into the moat. As things stand, everyone will lose.
If the PCs make Eddie happy, he owes them a favor. The party can use Slick Eddie the next time they are in town to make a Forgery or Gather Information check at +30. The attempt will take 8 hours as Eddie works the streets.
If the PCs make the Duke happy, he owes them a favor. The party can use Duke Esterworth the next time they are in town to make a Diplomacy or Appraisal check at +30. The attempt will take 8 hours as the Duke talks to his associates at court.
The good news is that there is a civil war among the hobgoblins and they won't be raiding good lands for the near future. The bad news is that a large force of hobgoblins has just "offered" you a chance to join their side. (Who was that idiot who insisted we didn't need any guards on such a peaceful night? Oh! Well, never mind.)
After a few weeks of brutal training, the PCs will get some missions fighting the other side, and may be destined for great things, which may include the commander's study of inter-species breeding. (PCs may also want to investigate the best way to flee an army.)
His master was murdered by a noble with designs on the throne, and he witnessed the crime, but who will believe him?
An aging king is constantly falling asleep and the kingdom is falling to the clutches of evil. A trusted ally of the king has seen bites upon the king and started an investigation into the matter, he enroles the help of the pc's to investigate matters.
Whilst investigating, the PCs come across the king's wizard, who has a strange looking pet with fangs that match the size of holes on the king. The PCs decide to keep an eye on the king's room to see what happens throughout the day using a combination of hiding and invisibilty to hover around. Whilst waiting they see bite marks appearing on the kings body and he starts drifting off again. At this moment the PC wizard uses an invis purge and low and behold a Homunculus is sitting on the king and biting him, leading the group to the king's wizard and a lot of explaining on his part.
A group of howlers have taken over an abandonded salt mine. The mine is mostly vertical, full of rickety ladders 100 yards long or more that seperate the small shafts. While exploring the ruins of the salt mine, the charcters are ambushed by howlers, who have scratched small clawholds in the walls and attack in groups when the characters are on the ladders.
Their insane howling can be heard for hours on end as the characters explore and descend, with appropriate wisdom drain the whole time. When the howlers attack, they take full advantage of the precarious situation of the ladder climbing adventurers. If the adventurers start to win the combat a small group of howlers descend and begin attacking the ladders bases, hoping to knock the adventurers to their doom.
Rebrum Palindor was never much of a wizard. Despite his high intelligence (18), he could never get the hang of any spells higher than 0-level (and he sometimes even botches those). Eventually, he flunked out of the Arcadian University of Magic. What's a young man with a high intelligence but not other special skills to do? Rebrum became something rare in the magical medieval society: a scientist.
As a man of science, Rebrum makes a nice living for himself: he sells his services as a highly skilled architect and trapmaker, having developed several new technologies in both fields. He even makes small mechanical clocks, which he sells to the merchant guild. However, these are merely to support his REAL research: genetics. Rebrum is something of the Gregor Mendel of his world, only he's not content with experimenting on flowers. No, Rebrum has moved on to experimenting on monsters. All sorts of bizarre creatures are kept in his laboratory: everything from a half-orc/half-nymph to a three-quarterling to a half-giant spider/half-snake with the regenerative powers of a troll to a centaur with the upper body of a goblin. His latest creation was perhaps a bad idea: a half-pyrohydra/half-cryohydra (In 3.0 it is also a lernaean hydra) with an increased intelligence. Naturally, it got loose and freed the other "experiments."
Rebrum wants his experiments captured, preferably all alive, though he'll be okay with the hydra being killed if absolutely necessary. The mayor wants the hydra and the other "abombinations" killed before they wreck the city. Most of the experiments simply want to leave the city, though a number of them would like to take out their anger on the town. The hydra in particular is in the mood for carnage.
If the party captures the creatures, Rebrum will be happy (especially if the hydra is alive). He will leave the city, where he is no longer welcome, with his creatures in tow and settle elsewhere. He will be willing to help the PCs with his vast sums of knowledge, allow them access to his huge personal library, and let them use his lab for alchemical creations. He may even offer to give them special abilities (giving them wings or extra limbs, perhaps). The mayor will be somewhat grateful to the party, but Rebrum's creatures will be very angry with them.
If the party kills the creatures, the mayor will be very pleased. He will give them a reward and try very hard to get the PCs to settle in the town, perhaps offering them small plots of land on which to build houses or offering to make them officers in the city guards. He may be able to do other political favors for the party. Rebrum will be very angry at the PCs. Fortunately for them, he's thrown in jail, but if he escapes he will try to take revenge on them. The creatures, being dead, won't have much to say about it, unless they come back as undead.
If the party negotiates for the release of the creatures, the creatures will be very pleased with the PCs. They will find a reclusive place to form their own society. They will be willing to help the PCs any way they can. The mayor will be relieved, but somewhat annoyed that the PCs made him look foolish. (Some of the townsfolk may even push for one of the PCs to replace him as mayor.) The mayor will pretend to be grateful, but will secretly try to humiliate the PCs, find a reason to arrest the PCs, and/or otherwise discredit them. Rebrum will be thrown in jail and again be angry with the PCs and the town. If he manages to escape, he will try to find a way to control the creatures, then have them destroy the town and kill the PCs.
The hydra is like a (lernaean) pyro-hydra except that 50% of its heads breath fire and can be sealed with either cold or acid, and 50% of its heads breath cold and can be sealed with either fire or acid. The body is immune to both fire and cold.