The party stumbles on a very large underground lake. The magenta crystal formations on the lake's border identify it as the fabled Lake of Alabaster Gold. The stories tell that the bottom of this lake is lined with pearls of all sizes.
A Knowledge:Local (DC 10) or an appropriate Bardic Knowledge roll will reveal that the Lake is also said to be a very dangerous place, every single person to have tried to dive in the lake has come out dead. Examining the lake doesn't reveal the presence of large fish or any other kind of predator.
Little do the adventurers know that an evil Aquatic Elf wizard had once a secrete laboratory at the bottom of this lake and set a pair of guardians to protect its entrance. The guardians are water elementals that use the statistics of Invisible stalkers, substituting swimming speed for the flying speed and Aquan to Auran as the spoken language.
Both guardians were bound to a thousand years of servitude and have only been around for seven hundred years. They are bitter by their imprisonment and are loath to negotiate. A difficult Diplomacy (DC 25) can convince Boombanguamae, one of the guardians, to negotiate a way to circumvent his protective duties. The second guardian - Nassawash-, however has become so bitter to his ordeal that he will accept no compromise. Boombanguamae can be convinced of staying out of battle with the second Stalker.
To free the elementals from bondage one must destroy a specific crystal formation on the bottom of the lake, a formation the guardians are forced to stay away from. The destruction of said crystal is the price Boombamguamae asks to avoid attacking trespassers. However, the crystal is inside an alcove on the lake's bed, impossible to be seen from out of the lake. It has a hardness of 12 and 80 hp.
In the first few months of an adventuring party's career, kobolds are everywhere. You can't walk ten paces without stubbing your toe on one of the little bastards. But after they destroyed that kobold fortress and got their first magic weapons (+1 daggers, baby!).
Now, the party has moved on to bigger and better things. Drow. Derro. Duergar. And all of those kobolds seem to have disappeared, except for the occasional cryptic symbol on those drow, derro and duergar weapons. Until each of the party members is haunted by eerie, prophetic dreams. Each dream features, as a central character, a kobold figure who is very upset at the party. He gives the party members an offer they can't refuse, giving them assignments with powerful threats attached should they ignore him. When these threats start to materialize (family members kidnapped, property destroyed, etc.), how long will it take the party top realize that it's been interfering in the kobold arms trade for the past five years? And how are they going to deal with Don Kojark?
The note on a large bottle says "Tired of being a low level party? Throw this over the side of your ship."
The bottle disloves quickly in large quantities of salt water, releasing one very angry kraken... Fortunately it will be a round or 2 before it returns to normal gargantuan size, so they will have time to prepare, or at least try to escape...
A population explosion of krenshar has swept the countryside, and the feral beasts hold the populace in terror. They have developed the strategy of frightening the elderly with their peel-away faces, dragging them away when their weak hearts fail them. All of the kingdom's wisest hermits, long the source of random-seeming quests and cryptic prophecies, are dying of krenshar-induced heart attacks. Can the party put a stop to this?
The PCs come to a city where a powerful noble is being attacked by an ancient disease. All the diviners could determine was that Lamias may hold the answers but would require the party to travel and find these evil creatures. The party travels to the desert, where they are ambushed with illusions and are overcome and taken prisoner. The group asks to fight a duel with the camp's champion to the death in exchange for the infomation about the disease.
An introductory adventure:
A lammasu is dying. He has protected your villiage since before you were born. But now his time is fading from this world. He can barely move, but he can command his powers and people of the villiage still come to him for advice about day-to-day affairs. But now danger strikes on the edges of the village. No foe of strength will test the lammasu, but very hungry kobolds will risk it.
The lammasu begs you, the eldest children of your generation, to fight the kobolds. He will cast improved invisibility as often as he can to help out with scouting and attacks, but his age has reduced him to 5' and he can no longer fly.
If the party wins the day before three days are up, the lammasu will pass into the next world content, knowing that his legacy will live on and the village will prosper in the hands of the new guardians. (+100 exp).
Long ago a lillend made a promise that it would give up an immortal life in exchange to let a paladin who had fallen continue on. Now it comes time for the lillend to die, but the full curse that it made to live is only becoming to be real.
The lillend must fight a true battle to reach true death or else the paladin's soul (which has long since left her body) will go to Hades. The lillend would prefer to meet its end at the hand of a just and true sword than a corrupt one and thus does challenge the party.
Note: The outsider will give the party three days to prepare, but will insist on meeting on equal ground -- or else it won't be a real sacrifice will it?
If the party succeeds on just and honerable terms, they will gain one free question from the paladin as if they had cast Contact other Plane.
Lizardfolk boaters are fleeing the swamp. The chief of the local tribe sends an emissary to a nearby human village, asking for safe passage through the the village's waterways. The village rector is reluctant, fearing prejudice on both sides and the nearly definite possibility for violence. The lizardfolk are near frantic in their fear, desperate to escape a dark, nebulous evil from deeper within the swamp. The rector forbids them passage, but the lizardfolk feel they have no other choice and press on. Tempers flare, skirmishes occur, and warriors on both sides die. The evil from deep within the swamp grows stronger with each confrontation between the humans and lizardfolk.
Enter the PCs. Can they convince the lizardfolk and humans to cooperate? Can they soothe old prejudices and fears? Do they aid either or both sides? Can they find the source of the evil driving the lizardfolk from their homes, which is sure to come after the human village next
A clan of locathahs co-exists peacefully with nearby small coastal village. The locathah have a number of oyster beds, and supply traders and gem-sellers in the village with a steady source of cultured pearls. In return, the villagers trade small game and metal tools.
Within the last month, the color of the pearls has inexplicably changed. Once white and pink pearls are now deep purple or black. Additionally, these pearls now carry strong auras of negative energy, far stronger than would be expected of pearls of similar size. The local wizard is beside himself with glee, as now all his necromancy spells and experiments are working with unprecedented success.
Coinciding with the color change, the locathah clan has become more and more hostile. Negotiations with pearl traders turn in to shouting matches. The locathah demand higher and higher prices for their pearls. Just last week, there was an "unsanctioned raid" on a villager's sheep herd. The locathah come across as suspicous, paranoid, angry, and belligerent. There are rumors that the locathah shaman has gone stark raving bonkers.
Enter the PCs! What caused the pearls to change color? Is it connected with the apparent change in the locathah clan's attitude towards the village? Who or what is behind the changes? Is the village wizard involved? Has the Locathah shaman truly gone insane? Where'd those missing sheep go?