Adventure Hook Junction 2: Adventure Harder.

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Duckluck's picture
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Adventure Hook Junction 2: Adventure Harder.

The first Adventure Hook Junction thread finally hit its target of 100 hooks, so we're going to be starting over with a fresh thread. Hopefully the last thread hasn't exhausted our collective imaginations.

The PDF of Adventure Hook Junction One can be found here: /081225/adventure-hook-junction-i

Rules: Rule One: Every post in the thread (even comments on other peoples' posts) must include an adventure seed.

Rule Two: Your adventure idea must be long enough to make sense, but short enough to be read quickly.

Rule Three: List your seeds as Short (can be squeezed into a single session), Long (takes place over multiple sessions), Very Long (extended adventure that takes place over multiple levels -- think Faction War), or Campaign Seed (Forms the basis of an entire campaign).

With that in mind, each of your hooks should follow this format: [Adventure Length]: [Adventure Name]: [Description of Adventure Hook. No more than a paragraph or two] --[your screen name] (this will save me time when I compile these).

If you don't do all the formatting, no one's going to tar and feather you or reject your idea, but it will mean way more work for me when I put these together, so please follow the formatting (bolding and all).

Guidelines: These are supposed to be short, simple adventure ideas, so don't make them longer than a paragraph or so (the campaign seeds can be a little longer though), and don't make them too in-depth. Simply listing the quest origin and objective, and leaving the individual encounters up to the DM is fine. At the same time though, don't make make them too vague. Saying "a fiend wants the PCs to retrieve an item from one of the inner planes, but isn't on the up and up," is pretty much worthless as adventure hooks go. It's too vague and it forces the DM to do all the hard work. A good hook featuring that setup would look like this:

Long Adventure: A Simple Plan: The PCs are approached by a Cornugon named Lix`drar (he may be in disguise if the PCs aren't the type to talk to Baatezu) and hired to retrieve an enchanted emerald for him from the City of Glass on the Elemental Plane of Water. He tells the PCs he can't retrieve it because the Marids have a grudge against him and would kill him if they discovered him, but the actual reason is that the emerald is the Entropy Gem, a powerful artifact that has the power to instantly kill any immortal being that touches it (including Marids and Cornugons). Lix'drar plans to dupe the PCs into giving the gem to his master, the Pit Fiend Banalos, but the PCs may well have other ideas. Of course, they have to find the gem first. --Duckluck

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Adventure Hook Junction 2: Adventure Harder.

Yay! Laughing out loud Adventure Hooks are back! Laughing out loud

Short Adventure:
Give Me Back My Dolly: Quadrone TK 421, had strange mission. It had to studdy behavior of gigant's children. For that he vas given guise of mechanical wind up toy. But time has passed and it still has not reported to its superiors from its mission. Now PC are hired to rescue modron from "little" gigant girls bedroom. It is like sealing candy... er, toy from baby, gigant baby that is.
-Squaff

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Adventure Hook Junction 2: Adventure Harder.

The Vortex
Short to Medium

The Doomguard Lich Nuir has travelled to the Plane of Ice, to a place so cold that some say even the words of creation froze and fell to the ground. And he came back with an idea...
According to him, the multiverse will end in a giant vortex, born on the negative energy plane. When that vortex has swallowed everything, a new multiverse will be born. But not only that, but those who know how, will be able to control the vortex, and the new multiverse born from it.
Now, whether that's true or not, Nuir is convinced. And now he's training... he acquired a Sphere of Annihilation and is travelling around the planes, destroying everthing in his path to train his ability to control such a vortex of destruction.[b]

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Adventure Hook Junction 2: Adventure Harder.

Campaign Seed
The Gate of Paradise:
The world of Kathar is gasping its last breath and the power of its belief slowly fades from existence. Saum, last of the godlings of the world, seeks to gather the souls of all the faithful in a great vessel - the Reliquary of Ahm - and propel them into Elysium as a final reward with the last ebbs of his divine essence.
Elysium has a weakness, the prison that is Belierin, a place where the rules of belief and alignment are bent. It is here that Saum plans to send the souls of Ahm, so that even the most tainted of the faithful will find eternal bliss.

Can a plane take such an event?
Will the layer shift if Saum succeeds?
Who else is interested in the vast horde of souls Saum has collected?
Will the prisoner of Belierin escape?

- Xjel

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It writes and designs dungeons, adventures and encounters. Do not feed after midnight.

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Adventure Hook Junction 2: Adventure Harder.

Medium to Long story arc.

What's your name again?

On a rainy day in Sigil, one of the PCs finds that her memory has been errased. Completely. Except for HP, the character should revert to first level. The other PCs may have a difficult time convincing her that she does, in fact know and trust them, especially if some are exotic planar races. Sigil becomes more amazing to her than to the greenest prime. If they find an expert on memory (which, this being Sigil, is as likely to be a mind flayer as a human sage), it is identified as a simple case of styx water contact. No cure. The memory sage will assume the PCs are lying if they say they haven't been anywhere near the styx lately.

Luckily for the PC, the styx water was mixed with the Sigilan rain, and she will regain most of her memories over time. At the player's option, whole chunks of backstory can be lost, leading to interesting character-based plots in the future. The PC will gain lost levels back at a rate of 1 per d6 days (or slower). At the player's/DM's option, one of the levels can be replaced with a class level the PC did not have before, as she finds a new talent her former life never led her to.

If the PCs don't go looking for the cause of the PC's abnesia, it will happen again on another rainy day, either to another PC or to some poor sod they run into.

The actual cause could be a barmy with a bucket, a portal key, and a flying carpet, or it could be a mage-alchemist performing his own research into the effects of mixing styx water with Sigilan weather.

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Adventure Hook Junction 2: Adventure Harder.

Short adventure/Archeron Sidetreck:
Prototypes: PC are attacked by modrons while they are crossing desolate cube on Archeron. But this modrons are "different": monodrones explode, triodrones that fly, pentadrones are filled with different types of gas etc...
Unfortunatly PC are stumbled on cube that modrons use for testing new designes of weapons and modifications for war against formians. PC must find way to get away from the cube before they are used as "modron test dummies".
-Squaff

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One-eyed, one-horned, flying, purple people eater says: "Monsters are nature's way for keeping XPs fresh."

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Adventure Hook Junction 2: Adventure Harder.

What the...
Most likely short adventure

After a long night in one of the hives, let's say, less noble taverns, the players wake up in a place that looks suspiciously like Dis, the Iron city, fire and glowing metal included.
But something is strange in this place. Really strange. Soon after waking up, the players are greeted by a pair of friendly Barbazu, who offer them cool drinks "because of the terrible heat" in a café frequented by a host of very polite and friendly devils and petitioners.
What is this place? How did the PCs get here? Is it all some plot to drive them insane or are they in some sort of paralell dimension? And, most important, how can they get out?

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Adventure Hook Junction 2: Adventure Harder.

Medium Length
The Lilly-skin Folk
A area of the Clerks ward is being demolished to build a new business bloc for Esward & Co., but as the floorboards were ripped out the men working on the project were shocked to find dozens of white skinned people living under the place. The "lilly-skins" were all weak and under fed, they are currently in the "care" of the Mercykillers until further notice.
The heroes have been hired for two reasons;
- To use their magic (that is if they have the right spells) to talk to the people, as they speak their own strange language.
- To search the catacombs they were found in for clues as to who and what they are.

~ TheSky

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Adventure Hook Junction 2:Adventure Harder

Short:

The Merchant of Death

An Aboleth mage and merchant, calling himself only "The Cardinal" travels the Outlands with his "special" goods: he sells ghosts he caught on the Ethereal Plane. 

Now, while buying either souls or corporeal undead isn't difficult on the planes, these ghosts, bound to crystals, are a rarity, and many people are ready to pay a lot of money for them. But what about the rumours that the Aboleth kills innocent people to bind them? And why do his  human servants seem so grey-skinned and thin? Are they  just enslaves or is there more?

Jem
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[Adventure Length]:

[Adventure Length]: adaptable

[Adventure Name]: The Third Axis

A sage of the Fraternity of Order, Natya the Venerable (don't call her a graybeard!) thinks she sees the possibility of a coming rearrangement of the Planes, and her theory is sparking much debate.  Having accumulated a certain amount of funds over her life and made a number of academic contacts, she is willing to fund expeditions almost anywhere on the Planes if adventurers will agree to a few tasks.

Single missions may be had constructed by hiring the PCs for various tasks associated with her network: "locate a researcher that has stopped communicating from this area of the Outer Planes; he was taking arcane measurements of the plane's local morphic traits," for example, or sending an academically-inclined wizardly PC and his friends to a dangerous area of a Lower Plane to fill an absolutely critical hole in her dataset.  Should Natya or a colleague turn out to be right, entire campaigns could revolve around getting business or groups positioned to take advantage of new planar travel opportunities, or thwarting plots for evil to gain certain strongholds.  One campaign could be "purify Pandemonium of its evil and move it towards Limbo, to mirror Arcadia's loss of Nemausus; do so without freeing the ancient terrors trapped deep within Pandemonium's layers."

The full theory, and suggestions for missions for PCs, can be found at /forum/the-third-axis-change

--Jem

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STD Short   Customer

STD

Short

 

Customers of the Festhall are leaving with a fever that leads to a coma. One of the Stones from the Sensorium is carrying a experience based disease much like a meme it is something the individuals saw during the experience. During the fever the individuals scrawl a symbol that is the meme. The party are contracted to sort though the vast number of stones that were used by the individuals to try and find the infected stone.

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Secret Ingredient The

Secret Ingredient

The multiversally acclaimed cook, so-called "God of Taste", also known as the "Chef of Gods", is in Sigil after a long break. he wants to celebrate his return with a flashy feast, and he will introduce the new recipe he came up with while on vacation. His cuisine always include some rare, even unique stuff. This time he outdid even himself and ended up with the most important ingredient missing.

The PCs are secretly invited to a meeting with the Chef and are tasked with acquiring the secret ingredient.

It is only a few days before the big night and all the golden lords and ladies of Sigil are invited. Everybody is excited about the event and speculations about the new delights are flying around. This means the PCs have to be quick and cunning, as there is a time limit, and those who wish to learn the secret recipe may become persistent.

Here's the catch: The PCs will be invited to the feast if they are successful. This means they'll share a table with some of the most important bloods in Sigil. And the meal itself's supposed to be magical. 

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Hey everyone I'm back after

Hey everyone I'm back after long time. (been buisy).

Short adventure:

Old warty thing in library: Faternity of Ordere have lost an Demarax from they HQ on Mechanus, the thing wandered after tasty spell crystal trough portal. What is so special about this Demarax? PC's will ask.

Well, this particular Demarax was used as living spell book (and library) eons ago by now extinct race, and sheer information that Demarax hold in its immortall head is pricless (Demaraxes are immortall and remember anything they see or hear). So Guverners want the thing back before some berk kills it for its hide or even worse to fall in the hands of wrong people (fiends, xsaostitects, etc...).

 -Squaff

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One-eyed, one-horned, flying, purple people eater says: "Monsters are nature's way for keeping XPs fresh."

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These are small side quests

These are small side quests that can be given to PCs on-the-go.

#14. Surprise Me.

PCs have to prove themselves to Shemeska the Marauder, for whatever reason or purpose. To measure their worth, the vain arcanoloth asks that the PCs tell her "something she doesn't know" in one week. Of course, it has to be something she actually cares about. Can the PCs beat the extensive spy network of the most nefarious info-broker in Sigil?

#15. Alchemists Fire.

One of the better Alchemists in Sigil has a grudge against Wooly Cupgrass, probably because the extraordinary Bariaur is ruining the competition in alchemy business. He figures that it will be a fitting end to the his rival if he dies while doing what likes doing best: Trying a new, random potion. Chant on the street is that he is looking for the most dangerous, poisonous, deadliest concoctions from all over the planes, AND for someone who will deliver the final cocktail to Wooly.

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Long adventure: Visages of

Long adventure: Visages of order

When Tenebrous was Primus (see Great Modron March & Dead Gods) some of his Visages (as well as him, but he got rid of this "impurity" when he left Mechanus) were tainted with law. Now this group posesses a hive mind, an urge to spread order (as evil beings, they care olny to satiate that urge and don't care about consequeces) and... miniature Energy Pool (which works just as the modrons' version, but on smaller scale). They live in Sigil, using their illusions to make it appear more lawful (and thus - via power of belief - become so.

PC may be hired by Xaosites or other non-lawful group to check what's going on and how to stop it - an interesting quest in itself, but...  Visages' Pool is able to consume life force and souls and - because it isn't especially powerful - destroyed beings' personalities and beliefs will alter the very nature of Visages connected to Pool. If PC discover it, they'll be able to shape those beings into champions of good or anything else - but to do so, they'll have to do some nasty sacrifice.

Maybe a fanatic/fallen celestial will learn the dark of it and try to raise a new race of goodness' servants at a cost of his heavenly kin's essences?

-Arislyt

 

 

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Short  (Opening to a

Short  (Opening to a larger adventure)

Just a Quick Note 

Someone has been going around sticking little grubby notes on things, on walls, doors, inside shop windows, on the backs of slowly shambling zombies, on the library books and the tips of tall buildings. They give directions, leading to another note, which in turn leads to another note...just who is writing them and what will the final note lead to?

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Short A ally or close

Short

A ally or close friend to the PC's has suddenly just vanished. Nobody has forgotten about him and his possessions and kip are where they were, but the person is no where to be found. It is said that the person missing had recenty earned the emnitiy of a former Signer. Unfortunately, the Signer is also missing, saying that he wanted to disappear from existance. Was the signer behind the person's disappearance? Did they really stop existing? Has the signer really vanishe, or is it a ruse? Can the PC's ever hope to recover their friend?

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Last Wishes

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Last Wishes

Short

The PCs are approached by a relative of a prisoner soon to be executed and being held in the prison. He asks that the PC's to deliver a letter to his son soon to be but in the dead book. If pushed he admits it is a magical aid to his son, a minor teleport effect that will provide him with a piece of the boy to raise from the dead. He desperately asks that the Red Death not see this letter. His son is a disgraced ex-member of the Mercy Killers and is being given to the Wyrm.

The "son and father" are in fact members of the Revolutionary League. The "son" is to sacrifice himself to the cause by setting off a powerful disintegrate effect (preferably from inside the Wyrm's Belly).

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Short Adventure

Short Adventure (expandable)

To Crux

 Traveling through the astral, the players run across a burning coffin. Inside someone is screaming for help. Assuming the players get him out they find an old man covered in soot with burnt chlothing. He says he's from Crux on Yggdrasil. He last remembers laying down for a nap and woke up in the burning coffin. He has no idea how to get home or what happened so begs the players to take him home.

 In truth, he fell asleep drunk and was assumed dead. The townsfolk found him, put him in a coffin on a funeral pyre and had a short cerimony before ignighting the pyre. As is custom in Crux, the flamming pyre was then slid off the tree and plummetted into the astral.

Used as an alternate lead-in to Dead Gods.

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Medium Adventure Special

Medium Adventure

Special Delivery

 

The PCs are approached by a merchant and asked to deliver a magical item to a customer in Jangling Hiter, a Tiefling collector of bizarre items in the Merchant’s Quarter. The merchant only knows that a sinister looking young woman asked him to make the delivery arrangements and provided the item as well as a large sum for both him and the PCs. The item is a large ornate mirror and the PCs are warned not to look at it (most likely a mirror of life-trapping the merchant thinks) – it comes covered and bound in a thick tarp. It’s really a 2-way portal to the Abyss with powerful enchantments to make it seem necromantic to detect magic spells. The merchant has no idea, but a Marilith is supplying the mirror to her sleeper agent in Jangling Hiter to launch an attack on the Sinking City. Along they way, a few over-eager Tanar’ri are likely to slip through from time to time. Once the mirror arrives (if it does), the attack begins immediately and the PCs are right in the middle of it.

 

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It lives again! (thread that

It lives again! (thread that is).

Medium Adventure

Please save our kingdom: Pc are aproached byambasador from utopian kingdom on distant prime world called Rarg. On Rarg there is horrible hostile monster that is dewouring once beautifull land leaving only waste. If PC agree they are promised what ever they want.

But what ambasador fails to mention is this: Rarg is not real world, it is dreamscape that somehow reamained intract after its dreamer woke up, and that horible monster is actualy elephantine Baku, an holy beast wich is also called Dream Eater, whose duty is to devour bad or old dreams.

-Squaff

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One-eyed, one-horned, flying, purple people eater says: "Monsters are nature's way for keeping XPs fresh."

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An attempt at a hook for

An attempt at a hook for getting primes to the planes. Not sure about length or if it has been done before.

Long/Very Long

Legend in his Own Time

At some time in the past a high level paladin of a PC's church defeated/helped defeat a nigh invulnerable devil pulling the strings of power of a kingdom. The devil was not destroyed and rumours/information of his return have surfaced. The tight-lipped paladin, however, has recently passed away (was he assasinated?) taking the secrets of his victory with him. Raise Dead, Ressurection and Speak with Dead have all failed. The PCs must find his shade and get the information. This should not be too difficult, surely this blood is now a petitioner on Mount Celestia.

-- Sumpbeast

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Hey guys, I was reading

Hey guys, I was reading through the old planescape books (Factol's Manifesto and faces of Sigil) and I came up with a few ideas.  They can be used as low-level, but they can also be scaled up without too much difficulty.

 

Length: Short or Long (Depending on how much the GM wishes to expand it)[Adventure Name]: Disharmony in the Harmonium--[your screen name] Degausser

 

Hook: The PCs encounter a Harmonium patrol in the back allyways of the great Bazar, beating a defenseless Inep Bariaur, whale the poor kid screams bloody murder that he hasn't done anything.  One of the Harmonium notices the PCs, and will order them away, or (if there are any Indeps flashing their symbol, or obvious primes such as elves or whatnot), order his friends to "kill 'em" for no reason.  

The Dark of It: There is a splinter version of the Harmonium that is going after all indeps, viewing them as dangerous individuals because their push for individuality is in direct contrast to the Hardhead philosphy.  Now, the factol doesn't know about it, but these guys think they have the right of it, and are willing to kill and falsify information in order to achive their goals.  What's worse, they have made an alliance with Cirily (from faces of Sigil), an Eladrin that wants to form her own faction as a Planars-only faction, and kick all primes out of Sigil.

The two groups have struck a deal.  The Hardheads get supplies, safe houses, and political support from Cirily, and in turn, they whipe out the Indeps, making way for the new faction (remember, only 15 factions in Sigil!)  Their numbers are starting to grow, and several indeps have banded together to offer a reward for stopping this invasion of freedom, preferably by bringing proof to the attention of the Factol of the Harmonium, a guy who does not stand lawbreakers, even those in his own ranks.

__________________

A good role player thinks of his character.
A great role player thinks of others' characters.

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Feel free to comment on my

Feel free to comment on my ideas, I would love some critical feedback.

Length: Short or Long (Depending on how much the GM wishes to expand it)[Adventure Name]: Uproar in Sigil--[your screen name] Degausser

 

Hook: The PCs return to Sigil after an extended adventure to find the entire city at each other's throats.  A bit of digging finds that the Harmonium, Indeps and Anarchists are all fighing amongst themselves, and fighting the Guvners.  Rumor has it that the Guvners have found a doomsday weapon and only the faction high-ups know what it is.  People are saying that the lady has mazed a bunch of people already, but that hasn't stopped anyone yet.

The Dark of It:  The Fraternity of order has indeed found a new ritual, and it can be used as a weapon, but not the one people think.  It is a newly developed (or alternatly, ancient, lost) ritual simply called "Know."  The ritual poses so much of a threat, or could be such a boon, that the factions are willing to go to war with each other in order to posess this ritual, and to make sure no one else does!  Unbeknownst to all, the master of this ritual has fled Sigil, in order to avoid being mazed by the lady, as soon as he saw there was a problem, he is currently hiding out in the gate-town to Mechanus.

Know, level 26, Category: Divination, Casting Time: 1 hour, Duration, Instantanious, Component cost: 45,000 GP, Market Price (Special, only one copy is known to exist, and the master isn't handing out copies), Key Skill: History (No roll)

Casting the Know ritual is somewhat similar to the Voice of Fate Ritual.  However, instead of asking questions about the future, instead the caster states something specific, and instantanously gains enough knowledge about that subject to be an expert.  For example, a battlefield commander could state "The Opposing army" and instantanously learn the size and state of the enemy troops, all their current plans, and all the enemy commanders' names.  Alternatly, the Heardheads could cast it to learn the best way to go about expanding their empire, or the locations of all Anarchist Cells.

__________________

A good role player thinks of his character.
A great role player thinks of others' characters.

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zapogee wrote:Special

zapogee wrote:
Special Delivery

The PCs are approached by a merchant and asked to deliver a magical item to a customer in Jangling Hiter, a Tiefling collector of bizarre items in the Merchant’s Quarter. The merchant only knows that a sinister looking young woman asked him to make the delivery arrangements and provided the item as well as a large sum for both him and the PCs. The item is a large ornate mirror and the PCs are warned not to look at it (most likely a mirror of life-trapping the merchant thinks) – it comes covered and bound in a thick tarp. It’s really a 2-way portal to the Abyss with powerful enchantments to make it seem necromantic to detect magic spells. The merchant has no idea, but a Marilith is supplying the mirror to her sleeper agent in Jangling Hiter to launch an attack on the Sinking City. Along they way, a few over-eager Tanar’ri are likely to slip through from time to time. Once the mirror arrives (if it does), the attack begins immediately and the PCs are right in the middle of it.

 

I enjoy this one quite a bit.  Consider it stolen.  Eye-wink

 

(Short to Long)

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

-[Stix]

Irvin Longfellow, a well-trained artist of (as of yet) no renown, has fallen in love.  He's an Indep, and his lady-love, Ti'andelis, is a Sensate (but he's willing to forgive that).  Sadly for Irvin, he's only one of many suitors, and she barely even knows his name.  To impress her, he wants to make a work unlike any she's ever seen before, and he'll need the materials to do it. As an artist of many media, Irvin refuses to work on this project with anything he's used before; he'll settle for nothing less than a rare material -- wood, stone, metal, clay, bone, or otherwise -- from the corpse islands of the Astral Plane.

What's more, out of begrudging respect for Ti'andelis' beliefs, Irvin feels it would be dishonest to send others to do the work for him.  He hires a few intrepid planewalkers (who else but the PCs?) to serve as his minders and guides in the Silver Void.  The problem?  Irvin has never left Tradegate, and has no idea what he's getting into.  Everything new and potentially interesting draws his attention, whether a torpid dhour or a flight of astral searchers.  Can the party keep him alive long enough to collect his promised reward?

Sample Complications: Ti'andelis is blatantly manipulating Irvin and all her suitors into providing for her every luxury; the people in her thrall don't respond kindly when this is pointed out.  Another suitor got it in his head to kill all his rivals.  Irvin is completely self-obsessed and uninspired, and rewards the PCs with some worthless, derivative artwork of his own creation.  The Guardian of the Dead Gods is very displeased with the party's activity on one of the God-Isles.

This could be a short jaunt or even a series of excursions, depending on how long and how many trips it takes the PCs to find what they're going after (and what kind of trouble they get into along the way).

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Re: Adventure Hook Junction 2: Adventure Harder.

I think it is about time to revive one of Planewalker's coolest projects. Smiling

Short or long adventure:
The Nightmare

For weeks a phantom criminal stalks the alleys of the Lower Ward, breaking into houses and putting cagers into the dead-book, apparently at a random pattern. The same time Indep Shalya Carnet is haunted in her sleep by horrible nightmares of crime and violence and plagued by tiredness when awake.
The dark is she doesn't simply dream of these events - in fact it's her dreams that create the violent phantom.

Hardhead-investigators comb through the phantom's tracks and rack their brain-boxes to find out the identity of the murderous stranger who gives 'em the laugh again and again. 'Course the Signers'd take great interest in the tiefling girl as soon as they find out about her ability to affect reality through her dreams. Additionally, the Bleakers'd gladly subject her to special "treatment" in the Gatehouse to help her to get rid of her awful condition.
Why is Shalya dreaming a murderer into reality and what does the phantom try to achieve? And what exactly is the phantom?

The player characters can get involved into this plot in various ways. They could be friends of the young tiefling, of one of the phantom's victims, or be involved with one of the factions that're on her heels.

__________________

"La la la, I'm a girl, I'm a pretty little girl!"

--Bel the Pit Fiend, Lord of the First (in a quiet hour of privacy)

Azure's picture
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Re: Adventure Hook Junction 2: Adventure Harder.

Love it!

What does it profit the prophet?

medium length, various levels (political/investigative)

Some berk in Sigil is claiming to b ethe incarnation of his race's god. Though he may just be a barmy, he displays awesome power, and is gaining converts. This isn't that unusual in Sigil, really, but so far his followers have kept him out of Harbinger House, and word has spread to other planes, bringing in waves of pilgrims.

The inner circle is using their new found power to line their own pockets. Rumors are that the Lady of Pain has been killing the followers of the prophet. Her Serenity taking an interest in the movement lends greater credence to the prophet really being what he claims, since an actual god in Sigil would likely anger the lady. Godsmen from Harbinger House wanted the prophet off the streets before The Lady got involved, and are now in a panic.

PCs investigate. Perhaps they include a member of the race, or a half-breed, who can go undercover. Perhaps not. After several encounters with fanatical zelots, priests living it up on the tithe, penniless refugees, godsmen, and perhaps some xaositects or sinkers looking to poke the hornet's nest even more, the PCs discover the rumors are false. The high-ups have been waylaying pilgrims who come with jink and cutting them up. They rob the berks, then spread the rumor that the Lady is involved, win-win.

High level PCs might discover one or more disguised fiends in the high priests' council.

For low-level PCs; The Lady might eventually get angry someone is using her name and MO. She just might flay someone on high priests' council to show everyone you can't fake the real thing.

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Re: Adventure Hook Junction 2: Adventure Harder.

Short adventure

Real Bloods Drill Deep

A blood knows where she can get rare commodities when she needs 'em. And a blood knows, too, that all too often these sources tend to run dry just when you really need them. Unfortunately, the characters need a certain metal (something special like adamantium or mithril, or simply a more common one that's needed as soon as possible) that's mined deep in the elemental plane of Earth, when they learn that a series of disasters and cave-ins has disrupted the mining and put the shipment of said metal to Sigil to a halt.

Canny bashers won't just sit around and hope for the problem to solve itself, but rather grab some picks, put on their goggles and get the drill-golem running. After all there're unfortunate cutters trapped between tons of debris and only a barmies'd doubt that a swift rescue of the missing miners and the whole mining operation won't affect the future prices they'll have to pay for rare metals in a rather nice way. Some bloods might even wonder if the calamities are caused by ordinary natural disasters, or if there's some elemental power causing the trouble.

__________________

"La la la, I'm a girl, I'm a pretty little girl!"

--Bel the Pit Fiend, Lord of the First (in a quiet hour of privacy)

Calmar's picture
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Re: Adventure Hook Junction 2: Adventure Harder.

Azure wrote:
What does it profit the prophet?
I like that Smiling

This one has become far longer than I had expected, so I've put the background into spoilers.

Short to long adventure

Myron's daughter

Spoiler: Highlight to view
The artificer Myron was not only known for his great skill, but also to for his quick temper. Over time his imprudent coarseness, his sudden outbursts of anger and his fanatical devotion to his work had alienated him from both his friends and his wife. One day, when Myron had locked himself in his workshop after a heated argument with his wife about something unimportant, she died in a horrible accident.
Myron cried bitter tears, prayed to the gods to bring her back, carried her to the wisest priests and to the greatest temples to restore her to life, but it was all in vain, for he failed to realize that she simply did not want to return to a life with him (see, there actually was no tangible reason for her not to give this berk the laugh - like many others'd do -, but sometimes life just ain't that easy for certain cutters).

At this point Myron the Artificer went barmy. Where the gods had forsaken him and failed to bring his wife back to life, he thought, it was his superior craftmanship that should allow her to live again! He began to fabricate a body of brass and white marble, with gears and spokes in its interior for her soul to inhabit. Seeing that his first attempt to summon her soul into the automaton didn't work, he concluded that he somewhere made a mistake during it's creation. Did he use the wrong materials? Where it's capabilities too limited to to shelter a human soul? And does one have to give the automaton certain basic traits of a person's behaviour first?

After years have passed and piles of jink were spent, only to create a multitude of failures that were at best caricatures of her personality, Myron managed bribe a greedy Sensate to get hold of a sensory stone that stored a vast amount of his wife's memories. From this stone Myron created a heart to bring his latest automaton to life.

A mage known as Myron the Artificer has managed to peel the Sensates off of one of their sensory stones with the help of a traitorous faction member, in order to bring his dead wife back to life as an automaton. Unfortunately for Myron the construct's not exactly behaving the way he has his beloved wife in memory and causes a lot of havoc in the artificer's large kip. The automaton's highly disoriented and completely clueless about who or what it (she?) is supposed to be and just why it came to exist, and has begun to bash Myron's case to chips with it's quite formidable abilities. See, waking up to find out to be some kind of artificial construct that's surrounded by a multitude of dead copies of oneself's enough to drive a cutter scared and barmy, especially when she's in a strange place with and just a small bunch of rather vague memories.

Is the mage the victim of some malfunctioning construct, or is he a criminal for creating a being that's doomed to suffering? Is it justified to take apart a dangerout automaton when it possesses feelings?

It's a cinch that the Sensates want to get their sensory stone back and to find out what's going on. The Harmonium might want to investigate the cries sound of fighting coming out of Myrons's case, and the Mercykillers'll likely be interested ensure just punishment of the wrongdoer - whoever that might be.

Meh, feels a bit cheesy when I read it now that it's done...

__________________

"La la la, I'm a girl, I'm a pretty little girl!"

--Bel the Pit Fiend, Lord of the First (in a quiet hour of privacy)

Azure's picture
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Re: Adventure Hook Junction 2: Adventure Harder.

Calmar wrote:
Meh, feels a bit cheesy when I read it now that it's done...
Whatever, they can't all be home-runs, just keep 'em coming.

*************

Length: short to medium

Various levels (low levels should stick with diplomacy, medium levels might survive combat)

Reform School

"Doesn't it seem sometimes like there are too many reformed fiends out there? Don't get me wrong, being nice to people is actually pretty cool, and you'll never hear me complain about a Tanar'ri NOT shoving my severed head up my arse ... but I''m just sayin'; for the irredeemably evil, there seems to be quite a few who've found redemption. More or less than fallen celestials, though? Only the rilmani keep good count of stuff like that, I guess."

Fiends have been disappearing off the streets of Sigil. Not that anyone cares. Not even other fiends. Most are weaker to mid-range types. When someone actually notices they assume the fiends are running afoul of enemies, superiors, up-and-coming inferiors, Sodkillers, Clueless, The Lady, or a host of other common dangers in Sigil. Robert Killian {or insert your own clever name}, a Guvner namer who works in the courts, has noticed the trend spiking markedly. Though nobody else seems to care, he's done some digging. Of course, he's a small man who pushes ink around all day, and a coward, so he wants the PC's help to do some field work. He believes he has identified one particular area of the Lower Ward that he believes will see disappearances soon. The PCs might encounter Tieflings and full-blooded fiends wondering what the PCs are doing in their neighborhood. If the party comes back a couple of nights in a row, eventually they witness a brace of cowled figures making off with a large rolled-up rug. They quickly exit the district, heading for the Hive.

Pursuing PCs who think to check auras notice all the figures are mostly Neutral-Good (though with a lot of leans toward 'Chaotic' and 'non-Good' ). Whoever's in the rug is Evil. The figures flee back to a secret hide-out under the Hive Ward. They may even WANT the PCs to follow them. They are a group of aasimar and devas, led by a planetar, who have been kidnapping fiends and trying to reform them. They have experimented with many methods; education, incarceration torture, magic, psionics, etc. They believe they may be near a breakthrough with a method combining Styx-water, long-term psionic domination, and a variant reincarnation spell.

They ask for the PCs' help in redeeming these wretched, twisted, monstrosities of evil that pollute the planes. If the PCs refuse, the reformers might decide THEY need some education.

For a twist: Are the rilmani involved? If so, are the reformers serving the balance or upsetting it?

Calmar's picture
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Re: Adventure Hook Junction 2: Adventure Harder.

Short adventure

High-Up's High-Ups

Most cutters assume factol Sarin's the ultimate high-up of the Harmonium. Truth is, the hardheads' primary area of influence is a bunch of worlds on the Material Plane and they actually regard their holdings on the planes as colonies of sorts.
However, some members of the Octave, the Harmonium's government, have announced to stop by in Sigil before they proceed to visit the Harmonium holdings in Arcadia. Now Sarin and the hardheads in the Cage naturally are in turmoil (so to speak) to make sure they make a fine impression on their high-ups and to ensure they'll be save and sound while in Sigil - of course all that's top secret.
Well, in the Cage such a big deal won't stay secret for long.

The characters can get involved into the events in a multitude of ways, depending on the factions they belong to and the amount of information they possess. The Doomguard or the Xaositects'll want to disrupt the visit by means ranging from spoiling Sarin's efforts to be an excellent host, to an assassination attempt on one of the hardhead high-ups. The Harmonium'll do their best to make sure the Octaves have a safe and pleasant stay in the Cage. While Bleakers and Dustmen probably won't care, Members of the other factions might be interested in the events as well, depending on their goals and their relations to the hardheads.

Smiling

__________________

"La la la, I'm a girl, I'm a pretty little girl!"

--Bel the Pit Fiend, Lord of the First (in a quiet hour of privacy)

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Re: Adventure Hook Junction 2: Adventure Harder.

Medium to Campaign Seed.

A chest full of wonders.

All the trouble started when some berks found behind a Portal the long lost Sanctum of a backring power.
Whit in the Temple a chest fillet whit all the jink a cutter cut ever wish for. And the best of it is the chest refills endlessly and is only guarded by some lousy traps. Naturally they go barmy over waves of jink and magic play toys for them coming out of it.
The dark of it is, the chest belongs to the long dead God of misfortune and was hidden there for a reason by some old Paladin blood. Every single gem any item any piece of jink this chests spits out is cursed. So as they are back to the Cage and start spending their new jink they spread the curse all around (and maybe the tale of their heroic deeds). It goes whit out saying that the Hardheads soon develop an unhealthy interest in the berks who caused all this. And the trouble becomes perfect when some bashers of the Rotters join the Party to find out the location of the chest to spread the fun all over the Multiverse.

The PCs could be involved in this in many ways. They could be part of the Harmonium or Doomguards. Some poor cutters who bought some of the Cursed stuff. Or even the Berks who first discovered the Chest.

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Re: Adventure Hook Junction 2: Adventure Harder.

Sorry duble-post, if it cant be deletet i will post a second hook soon.

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Re: Adventure Hook Junction 2: Adventure Harder.

Well it would seem this thread hasn't grown as quickly as the last one, but we're more than a third of the way to 100. Hopefully we can reach our goal before Ragnarok.

Long Adventure:
Shades of Gray:

A Prime city important to the party (their hometown, if they're clueless) has been taken over by a powerful Night Hag who has used her magic to shift it into the Gray Wastes. The townsfolk are not petitioners (yet) but become more selfish and apathetic by the day and will need outside help to save them. If the party isn't strong enough to defeat the Night Hag and her servants by themselves, they will need to find local allies of convenience. A rival Night Hag or a powerful Yugoloth may be able to help, for a price.
--Duckluck

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Re: Adventure Hook Junction 2: Adventure Harder.

Long Adventure:
The Jailbreak of Madness: Slaad aren't known for keeping secrets, and none other than Xaxnost has let cat out of the bag - Ssendam is going to free her fellow lunatic Diinkarazan from the Abyss!

This was dismissed as lunatic rumors until a legion of white and black slaad attempted to free the god but were destroyed by the timely arrival of Ilsensine's proxies and their collection of illithid-monster crossbreeds.

Naturally this failed jailbreak has led to the illithids turning violent against the slaad, hoping to find one coherent enough to interrogate about Ssendam's next move. Githzerai have used the incidents to incite slaad into accompanying them in their hunting of mindflayers.

The derro, and their god Diirinka, are covertly aiding Ilsensine as they fear the mad rage of Diinkarazan should he become free.

PCs can choose to aid any of the above groups, noting that Diinkarazan is crazy and evil but Ilsensine is far more so and for more deadly. Ssendam's game is anyone's guess, but those hoping for a clue might track down the blue-slaad Xaxnost.

__________________

Health Resources: Register family with 911 services, so providers will have info prior to emergency/disaster. Also mental health info & hotlines, articles, treatment assistance options, prescription assistance, special needs registries, legal aid, and more!

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Re: Adventure Hook Junction 2: Adventure Harder.

Sciborg, I think your hook may have been included in the last pdf. There's a lot of slaadi stuff there.

Long Adventure:
Goodness Gracious:

For many sweeps, the mortal servants of the Oinoloth in the Gray Waste have been granted a special potion called Grace. The drug contains the essence of pure joy and is one of the few cures for the crushing despair the Wastes inspires in its inhabitants. The drug is rare, valuable, and extremely addictive and only the Oinoloth knows how to make. Long considered a myth by graybeards and tavern bubbers alike, Grace has nevertheless attracted the attention of the Bleak Cabal who wish to study it as a possible cure for depression and other mental illnesses. The Bleakers task the PCs with traveling to Oinos to acquire a sample of the strange drug and, if possible, learn how it's made. What none of them know though, is that "Grace" is little more than the blood of slain Guardinals that has been spiked with a drop of the Oinoloth's own blood and anyone who drinks it becomes beholden to him in more ways than one.

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Re: Adventure Hook Junction 2: Adventure Harder.

Thanks for the heads up ->

Heh, not only was it mentioned before but I'm the author! Also interesting I made up the Fate-Breakers - in name at least - years ago, thought I made them this year.

Edited the one above to a new Slaad Rumor, and here's a new adventure hook:

Medium Adventure:
Digging Through Garbage: A faction high-up of the Mind's Eye was informed by converted members of the Godsmen about Harbringer House. Investigators sent to the house ended up in a tussle with the squatters who'd taken residence, and somehow the planarity fell through a portal into the Plane of Ooze, right into the Trash Heap.

The high-up is trying to keep a lid on this cock-up, and has sent the PCs to discretely wade through the garbage and locate the artifact. (Note that since the destruction of the Focrux the planarity might not work as well as it used to).

__________________

Health Resources: Register family with 911 services, so providers will have info prior to emergency/disaster. Also mental health info & hotlines, articles, treatment assistance options, prescription assistance, special needs registries, legal aid, and more!

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Re: Adventure Hook Junction 2: Adventure Harder.

Short or Long Adventure:
Trouble in Orctown

A community of strange Lawful orcs from the Harmonium home world of Ortho have settled in Acheron and have started trying to "convert" all Orcs in Acheron who have been "tainted" by Chaos (IE most of them). This provocation has the followers of the Orcish pantheon up in arms, but Acheron's status as a Lawful plane has them on the defensive and even the goblins and bladelings are starting to pick sides. War is the standard method for resolving such conflicts on Acheron, but this time the PCs have somehow become stuck in the middle and must choose whether to resolve the conflict or just try to pick the winning side. Should they fail to reach a sufficiently Lawful conclusion it is entirely possible that parts of Acheron will start shifting into the Outlands or more remote planes causing conflict to spread all over. Whatever happens they will likely come out of the mess with a few new friends and some powerful enemies.

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Re: Adventure Hook Junction 2: Adventure Harder.

Here's a bunch of inner planar hooks I've made so far for an eventual post for my brainstorm topic: (some of the titles suck because I made them up on the fly)

Short to Medium Adventure
Pandemic
The Oinoloth has sent agents-- including one of his aspects-- to Paraelemental Ooze to discover (or worse, CREATE) new diseases. The PCs must thwart the Oinoloth's plans.

Medium Adventure
Folugrub Plague
One of the PCs is a priest of Dumathoin, who along with the rest of the party has been sent to Quasielemental Mineral to assist the Sulwynaari (elven race from the Violet Dawn setting), Mineral Quasielementals, and other minions of Crystalle in eradicating an explosive infestation of Folugrubs.

Very Long Adventure
The Return of Tharizdun
The cult of the Elder Elemental Eye and the Doomdreamers are about to release Tharizdun from his prison. The players may have to enlist the help of Cryonax and Yan-C-Bin in order to stop such a disaster from occurring-- it won't be easy negotiating with these two (they must convince them that The Eye is Tharizdun without offending them, and in addition Yanny can only be convinced with textual proof millions of years old.) Winter's Resurrection and The False Scapegoats might be combined to build up to this adventure.

Very Long Adventure
The Winter's Resurrection
Cryonax seeks to collect the 999 fragments of The Winter's Resurrection, an orb-shaped artifact of epic power used after the Law-Chaos war to end the long age of Fire that dominated since the beginning of the Permian analogue, and tipping the elemental balance from Fire and Earth to Air and Water, resulting in an ice age on most prime worlds. Cryonax already possesses most of the shards, but has yet to collect the Chillsword from Magma (forged with a sliver-sized shard), one possessed by Yan-C-Bin, and finally, the one which fuels the glacier serving as Levistus's prison. Ideally, Cryonax should succeed in completing the orb, and the players find some way to shatter it before the archomental gets a chance to use it.
Since the completion of the orb requires that Levistus be freed, this adventure could have some interesting long-term repercussions even if the players succeed in the quest. (Glacial Inferno from Dungeon 103 may be used to build up to this adventure, as the artifact could easily be a shard, but the module would end with Cryonax's minions taking the shard)

Medium to Long Adventure
Alien Elements
An alienist has taken up residence unnoticed for some time on one of the Elemental Plane's Border Ethereal, within the territory of an evil Archomental, Mephit Lord, or Crystalle. By the time said ruler and his/her minions noticed the alienist, he had erected a maddening landscape around his stronghold, and a tear in reality into the Far Realm has begun to open on the overlapping Border Ethereal, and if not stopped, it will bring about the Cerebral Blot (permanent stain on reality as described in Dragon 330) and tear a rift into the elemental plane in question. The Archomental/Mephit Lord recruits the PCs to deal with the matter, preferring to use disposable prime mortals rather than expend any of their own resources to deal with the maddening problem. He or she is more than willing to take hireling NPCs hostage if that is what it takes to "motivate" the PCs. (This probably isn't necessary if the PCs realize the ramifications of a corrupted element)
This adventure could be the setup for a later campaign revolving around Obox-Ob, an Obyrith lord petty, spiteful, and crazy enough to open a rift into the Far Realm if it means getting revenge on the Tanar'ri, the Eladrin, the Queen of Chaos, the forces of law, the Archomentals, and even Pale Night-- all of whom aided in the Obyrith's fall (Pale Night birthed Graz'zt, Demon Lord of betrayal, and never lifted a finger to aid her bretheren)

Short to Medium Adventure
Fiery Vendetta
Disastrously, Zaaman Rul learns of and is somehow convinced of the truth-- it was Ekhak and Chilimba who murdered his mother long ago, not Imix. Overcome with indignation and wrath, Zaaman Rul recklessly declares war on both mephit lords. The PCs must assist Sunnis and Chan in convincing Zaaman Rul of his error.

Very Long Adventure
The Traitor's Fork
After disappearing for millenia, Qaereim, the Traitor's Fork, makes an appearance, wielded by and possessing a powerful being *almost quasipower level*. Qaereim has now decided to make his move, and has compelled his distant hosts in a way to pin Imix and Zaaman Rul against one another in an epic battle. Once the two have weakened one another a bit, it will strike, devouring the souls and essences of both.
During this quest, the PCs will learn about Qaereim's history-- specifically, that it is a fork of Quasielemental Ash that was used by Chilimba (during the Law-Chaos war) to slay Brista Pel, the late princess of elemental good fire, mother of Zaaman-Rul, and unlikely lover to Imix. It acquired sentience the instant it snuffed out Brista Pel's soul and last spark of her life. The PCs will also learn that Qaereim's nature comes from Chilimba's treachery, and that Qaereim has already slain and devoured the individuals who forged him. However, for his final act of betrayal, he plans to devour the essence and soul of Chilimba, the very individual who birthed him. On the way to this goal, Qaereim will devour the souls and life force of as many fire-based creatures as he can. The PCs must, above all else, prevent the deaths of Zaaman Rul and Imix, and ultimately destroy Qaereim for good. (the fork will likely need to be taken to a positive Quasielemental Plane or the Positive Energy Plane itself in order to be destroyed, and the PCs must be cautious not to actually wield it, or else they will become possessed)

Short to Medium Adventure
The Aquamarine Letter
Faerinaal has discovered that Morwel is two-timing him (or three-timing if you assume Gwynharwyf is also her lover, which I'm betting she is.) and has decided to confront Ben-Hadar for a duel to settle their differences. However, Sunnis worries that this duel could get ugly, as Faerinaal might not view Ben-Hadar as a power of Good.
Note: the name is a take on "The Scarlet Letter". Aquamarine refers to the color.

Medium Adventure
Futuristic Past
The PCs find a modern/semi-futuristic/early modern vehicle or other motorized machine on the second layer of Acheron. One way or another, they are able to discern that in order to make the device run, they need a special substance made from fossilized organisms (fossil fuels), which happen to be extremely prevalent on the Paraelemental Plane of Ooze.

Medium Adventure
The False Scapegoat
An epidemic of half-elemental kidnappings has taken place over the past several years, among multiple races. Tracing it to its source, the PCs discover that the victims are "sacrificed" by being thrown (unbeknownst to the cultists) into portals leading to the lairs of the Princes of Elemental Evil, whereupon they become slaves or servants of the archomentals. The PCs also uncover the escalation of a plot for a vast breeding program between elementals and mortals to produce half-elemental progency. This seed could tie in with the Tharizdun one.

Long Adventure
Strange Visitors
In the border region of Earth near Quasielemental Dust, the PCs encounter a grievously wounded man. When one of the divine casters attempts to heal his wounds however, his body withers away and he dies. Soon the PCs find themselves hunted by his kin. Eventually they find themselves in this tribe's stronghold, in an alternate reality accessed through the Plane of Shadow, where most living creatures possess souls of negative energy rather than positive energy.

Short Adventure
Down the Drain
The important item (probably an artifact) that the PCs need is owned by a rich Sigilian merchant. However, he laments that just hours ago, he accidentally lost his ring down the latrine portal to Ooze-- a ring which has been in his family for generations. He'll only give the PCs the artifact (or whatever it is they need) if they dive into the latrine and into the Paraelemental Plane of Ooze to retrieve it. Unfortunately, by the time they get there, it has been confiscated by a spiteful Ooze paraelemental which seems to be channeling Gollum (except that it says "precious shiny" instead of "my precious")

Short Adventure
The Great Fumbles of Mr. Giles
A beer spill of epic proportions in Sigil forces the PCs to assist an NPC mage named "Mr. Giles" in opening a huge one-way gate into the Paraelemental Plane of Ooze in order to empty the deadly torrent. However, due to some miscalculations, they accidentally open a portal to Elemental Water instead, earning the wrath of the Padisha of the Marid, Ben-Hadar, Blibdoolpoolp, and several other big names of the plane.
Note: A cookie for anyone who knows what "Mr. Giles" is a take on."

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Re: Adventure Hook Junction 2: Adventure Harder.

See I knew this thread would start growing again once people remembered it was here. Thanks Hyena for getting us past the half-way mark.

Short Adventure:
Lost in Arcadia:

A one-way portal has stranded the PCs on Arcadia and they have no idea where to find a portal out. On the surface, Arcadia isn't a bad place to be stuck what with its pleasant climate and (mostly) friendly natives, but one crime or misunderstanding (even something as simple as picking someone's apple tree) could have them chased across the plane by einheriar, the harmonium, formians, petitioners, aasimon, or all of the above. What's worse, an old enemy of the party (DM's choice who) has found them there and is feeding the locals stories of the party's past "crimes" (some of which could even be true). The party has to escape before the whole plane aligns against them, and if they fail they will have to face one of the dangerous entities in the planes, an Arcadian jury.

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Re: Adventure Hook Junction 2: Adventure Harder.

Short Adventure:
Live Book:

An (especially) eccentric Dustman sect has set about compiling a list of all individuals currently living in Sigil. Conventional wisdom says that this task is impossible, but the Dustmen are undaunted and have already recorded hundreds of thousands of names. This whole process has many Cagers worried, however. Many of the less law-abiding residents are concerned about their true identities entering the public record, while others are concerned that if they don't make it they might cease to exist, and there are even a few who are entirely unknown to the rest of Sigil and prefer it that way. Just about any organization in Sigil (including the Dustmen themselves) could task the PCs with destroying, acquiring, or altering this "Live Book" for their own ends, but the Dustmen have guarded it well, and the PCs aren't the only ones looking for it.

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Re: Adventure Hook Junction 2: Adventure Harder.

Misc. weirdness

Short or Medium
Artscapes
The PCs chase a thief through town, on the way happening across a strange arcane spell.
Later on, they chase the thief into an art gallery, where they spot her in one of the paintings! Noticing the PCs, she quickly flees the canvas!
The party wizard suddenly realizes what the spell is for-- it's a "Merge with Art" spell that will allow them to enter the worlds depicted in the paintings. This quest takes the PCs through a series of worlds depicted on canvas, including Sigil's own rendition of Relativity, as well as other Planescape takes on bizarre classical art, as well as-- well, paintings of things that you REALLY wouldn't want to be in an artscape of, such as a painting of armageddon or of a famous Githyanki-Illithidae war. Note that inter-painting travel is integral, and each painting (essentially, pocket demiplanes, though many extend beyond the canvas) possess a portal leading to an adjacent painting on the wall.

Medium to Long
Bookscapes
A powerful wizard has created a very dangerous artifact that allows groups of real subjects to enter a book and become part of its story. Most frighteningly, he has devised a spell that allows him to pull fictitious creatures out of the book, into the real world, as real, living creatures.
Worst of all however, is that it seems his ultimate goal is to procure a dread artifact from a novel that entails the characters therein slaying the Lady of Pain. The Players, logically, must thwart this plan, slay the wizard (extra XP if they use a special binding spell to seal/trap him inside a book, instead), and destroy the artifact before it falls into other fell hands (an artifact that can make written fiction spring to life is waaaay too dangerous) Ideally, this adventure should involve at least three different books, and while knowledge of the book's plot etc. beforehand will obviously be useful, it is impossible to fully predict what changes subtle acts-- including the very presence of the PCs-- can have on the book's plot.

Duckluck's picture
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Factor
Joined: 2006-10-10
Re: Adventure Hook Junction 2: Adventure Harder.

Insensed Sensates:
Short Adventure

The Doomguard have acquired the only remaining copy of an ancient book of Tanar'ri lore and, having no idea what it is save that it's old and important, plan to destroy it in a special ceremony. The Sensates, having learned about the book's discovery, want the party to rescue the book so that they can read it. The twist is that the book itself is unspeakably evil and quite cursed. The book grants its readers great knowledge and power, but is hazardous to their physical, mental, and moral health. If the players let the Doomguard destroy it, precious information about the nature and origins of the abyss (and evil itself) will be lost forever, but letting a bunch of flighty thrill-seekers play with an object of unspeakable evil may not be so smart either. Of course, if the party decides to just hold onto it, sooner or later they'll have to deal with the angry demon trapped inside.

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Re: Adventure Hook Junction 2: Adventure Harder.

Linked Portals:
Short or Long Adventure

Some wizard managed to develop a powerful spell named "Link Portals". It allows to link the exit of a portal to the nearby entrance of another portal. Someone using the first portal will arrive at the destination of the second portal. While originally used for helpful purposes (if you have to make a short trip through some dangerous plane from one gate to another you can just send one protected spellcaster, while the rest of the party can travel unseen and unprotected through the linked portals), there are lots of possible abuses for the spell.

As soon as word of this spell spreads, a lot of people want to get their hands on it - whether for use, abuse or destruction of the spell. The party could get hired from one or more interested partys to find the spell.

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Factol
Joined: 2005-07-26
Re: Adventure Hook Junction 2: Adventure Harder.

Long Adventure
Canals of Causality

A group of phanes trapped in a possible future call out to cultists in the present. The cults, scattered across the planes, must turn events toward the future that the phanes exist are imprisoned in.

Unfortunately, that future is one is which several Olympians are dead as the second Titanomachy is under way.

Once Mount Olympus is cracked open, the possible future will be close enough to the present for the phanes to stretch out and entire the timeline.

A benevolent time dragon seeks to aid the PCs, believing them to be the parents of heroes that exist in that far-flung future...

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Re: Adventure Hook Junction 2: Adventure Harder.

Dragon's Egg

Short to Medium

A scholar recruits the party to travel to Bytopia in search of a newly discover resource, but he's mighty cagey about what it is. How will the party react when they discover that the Adamantine Dragon has dozens of wyrmlings, and that their quarry is its latest egg?

Alt adventure: Short to Long

An "employer" forces the party to hunt down an individual on Bytopia. It turns out that the person is a priest of Loki who stole the Adamantine Egg. But why did he steal it and why did the party's "patron" resort to blackmail instead of hiring or requesting the party's aid?

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Re: Adventure Hook Junction 2: Adventure Harder.

Save the environment
Short to Campaign

In Sigil patches of Razorvine start dying.

That's not exactly bad news for most people, so at first most people won't care. Even the Dabus ignore it. No one cares - except those guys, who rely on Razorvine for extra protection.

They could either hire a party as guards for a special event, or they could send them investigate. Is it a disease, an insect or perhabs a spell? Did it come through a gate from the lower planes?

The infection might spread to some lower plane from Sigil, bringing up investigators from Baator or Gehenna looking for the reason as well. They might or might not form alliances with the party (and they might or might not honor agreements).

But with those fiends in Sigil a lot of people start to care at last. If the party is not yet involved, someone colud hire them now (or they might investigate on their own).

Jem
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Re: Adventure Hook Junction 2: Adventure Harder.

Ah hah hah. Now there's a moral dilemma for the environmentalists in your party. Not all living things are pretty -- do they care enough to hunt down and spend effort eliminating the cause of a threat to razorvine, of all things? Very nice.

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Re: Adventure Hook Junction 2: Adventure Harder.

Thought I would give this thread a bump, since the last post was a year and a half ago.

Apex Toran: Long to Campaign (pre-Faction War)

Some barmy sod happened upon the dark of the keys needed to open the largest portals in Sigil - the two circles created by the bound space on either side of the city itself.

Fortunately, that poor soul is holed up in the Gatehouse, but berks are starting to rattle their bone-boxes. Now every faction wants a part of the action since nobody knows where the portals actually lead.

The truth is that one of the portals leads to Chronias on Mount Celestia, and the other empties out at the bottommost layer of the Abyss (the end of infinity). Each of these portals leads to a primeval artefact used in the creation of the multiverse. If this is the case, where is the third portal and what does it lead to? Perhaps Sigil itself is the gate key, and the portal leads to the Ordial Plane or the plane which exists at the intersection of the six primary inner planes.

Since each faction has its own theory, and belief - if strong enough - can alter reality, the third portal, when found, is a kind of Pandora's Box. The opening of this portal will usher in the philosophical endgame of the faction that triggers it (i.e. it will be "The Source", "True Death", apotheosis, Entropy, etc.). In this way, the creation artefacts are the missing apparatuses that turn Sigil into an engine, and will bring about the end of the multiverse by creating a new vision of reality, and completing this cycle - or ring - of existence. Through all of this, Sigil persists undamaged and unchanged for eternity.

Then again, maybe this is just clueless chant that will undoubtedly get the attention of the Lady a put a whole lot of berks in the dead-book.

This hook is inspired by Harbinger House and Doors to the Unknown.
-solarisra

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factotums
Joined: 2010-06-26
Re: Adventure Hook Junction 2: Adventure Harder.

I would also like to keep this thread alive; but since I grab ideas from any source I can, I later forget if it was an original idea or if I lifted it from someone else.
Anyway, here are some of my ideas. I think most of them are my own; but if I did steal from someone else, please treat it as a homage from me and not plagurism

-Keep the Monkey King from making off with another peach of immortality

-Something is causing the peaches of immortality to be less plentiful. The lesser officials in the Celestial Bureaucracy are starting to suffer and ask PCs for help

-Rakshasas have set up a false monastery to deceive those pursuing enlightenment, using illusions to give “flashes of insight”. Can the PCs work through the deception before they corrupt many?

-A cadre of rakshasas has infiltrated the sign of One. They are trying to use the Signers to entice more people into the clutches of the raksahsa with claims that the Sign of One has created a "Garden of Eden" by will power. The rakshasa hope to lure people there to entrap them. The rakshasas could try to corrupt the comparatively altruistic Signers by making them more sinister and parasitic in their approaches to imagining a new universe. Basically, a rakshasa convinces a Signer into thinking he's mentally superior to all other beings (after all, he imagines the universe into existence, so therefore everybody else are simply imaginary toys).

-Eladrin make raids into Baator to rescue wrongly imprisoned souls. The rebellious eladrin make these covert raids because they feel that the more lawful celestials will take too long preparing and devising strategies while an innocent is suffering and could be saved with fast action. They ask the PCs to help (perhaps the PCs will serve as a hidden covert team freeing the captives while the devils are distracted fighting the more visible eladrin)

-A planar entity, known as “the Key”, who is said to be able to unlock ANYTHING even the prisons of Carceri. It is an ephemeral being like Proteus that cannot be controlled (why would “the Key” be “locked down” to one form?). Servants of the titans imprisoned in Carceri seek to capture or trick him into releasing their masters

-Rescue an angel who was driven mad on Pandemonium. He needs to be brought back and healed but how does one capture a powerful angel that doesn’t want to leave Pandemonium

-Person tries to open a conduit to the Elemental Plane of Air (to cool his manor) but unknowingly opens a passage to Pandemonium. Now various people are going mad for seemingly no reason
-In various parts of Pandemonium, the typical howling winds have been replaced by haunting music that captivates listeners. No one knows the cause or significance of this occurrence but it has many people talking

*Mechanus
-Help a sect of Xaosmen are trying to mentally create chaos-matter on Mechanus using thought, the way that githzerai form solid matter in Limbo

-A high-up modron is infected with chaos. All the modrons under it obey it unquestioningly although it appears that this large group of modrons is mad. The “madness” is subtle enough that any individual modron seems totally fine but the net effect is chaotic. A member of the sane group of modrons asks the PCs to help (the modrons can’t do it themselves as they must continue their work and undo the damage being done). Conversely, a low-level modron of the insane sect is ordered to find PCs and ask them to stop the “insane” (really sane) sect. Both sides make the same claims and offer the PCs the same monetary reward. How do the PCs determine which group is normal and how high up the chain of command the problem lies?

*Limbo
-Help githzerai (or other resident) weather the chaos storms that will come from Spawning Stone (which randomly appeared near their settlement)

-Help a young githzerai chaos-shaper pass his final exam. He is taken to an island of stability in Limbo. He must get past barriers by changing them (turning stone wall into steam) but must choose the right wall to find exit as opposed to releasing a monster; must form a bridge from nearby matter while that matter resists or tries to change to something else (or fights back like a water weird); must shape matter to create a weapon to defeat a huge monster; navigate a shifting maze to reach a key. Once the key is found, the island dissolves into chaos matter; the party must survive the last chaos bursts

-An “army” of slaad leaves Limbo but their bite now infects others with chaos

-When visiting Limbo, a chaos storm affects a PC - turns his skin bright pink; give him legs that look like a frog’s (no penalty or bonus); makes weapons sentient. How long before the effect wears off (if ever)? This gives the PCs a reason to seek or forge an item of mutation/adaptation using an element of raw chaos found only on this plane

-Some group (modrons, githzerai, other) have a plan to end the salad race. They wish to destroy the Spawning Stone! But what if the Spawning Stone is actually an epic god/primordial of pure chaos that has been imprisoned/petrified to keep it from destroying the multiverse. Will this plan to shatter the Stone awaken the god?

*Mt. Celestia
-Two orders of paladins are arguing over which group should be stewards on a specific shrine. Each believe their order is right and won’t back down. Do the PCs broker an agreement or do they champion a side?

-PCs need to speak to someone in a monastery but first they need written permission to enter. After traveling to the administrator, they are sent on an empty quest that is really designed to test their character

-Within a giant clam, a gorgeous black pearl was found. Unknown to all, this was the fossilized soul of a devil that was struck down into the Silver Sea ages ago. The gem has corrupted the head priest that had commissioned it in a new piece of religious art.

-PCs’ friend has a taint of evil (from a misadventure in Ravenloft?). They must get to the level of Lunia to bathe in the Font of the Fallen in order to remove a personal taint

-Possible spiritual tests may revolve around the following questions:
-Can persons believing a different faith be good? Is it more evil to turn away from them or to accept their possibly sacrilegious actions? (E.g. a chaotic good person who undermines the church because he rejects the controlling hierarchy)
-Is it best to blindly embrace what the church teaches or to question what we are taught to find a deeper personal truth? Or is that sinful pride?
-If fiends are fallen angels, is it possible that they may be redeemed? What effort and risk should be applied to this goal? If a group of fiends came to Mt. Celestia asking for sanctuary/redemption; is the chance of redeeming their soul worth the risk that they might try to destroy the purity of this realm? Is it worth the risk they would pose to the residents that lived hard lives doing good in order to reach this realm?

*Outlands
-A variety of themes related to groups seeking to cause a gatetown to slide into the neighboring plane or seeking to prevent such a slide.

-Rilmani send PCs to stop gatetown from sliding into another plane -A rebel leader in gatetown of Automata asks PCs to help him to sow chaos to keep the city from crossing over into Mechanus. This plan is supported by traders in Sigil who want the trading post to remain in Outlands.

-Devils seeking to get a town in Olympus to become less good and slide back into the Outlands. This will weaken Olympus. The devils are in an odd alliance with the rilmani on this project

-PCs asked to stop stealthy attacks on a home in a Gatetown. Turns out that the client is actually acting out a nefarious plan to slip the Gatetown into the neighboring plane and the “intruders” are a group (not powerful enough for direct confrontation) taking small stabs to prevent the town from sliding. If PCs switch sides, they find the client is more powerful than he let on

-The Arch-Lector is desperately trying to get Plague-Mort to slide into the Abyss. Ironically, his complex plan to accomplish this is actually injecting elements of law and ordered planning that keeps the city anchored. Now a misguided force of good (perhaps a eladrin) is urging the people to resist the evil of the mayor; but if the PCs don’t stop her, the eladrin will move the town closer to chaos without moving it towards goodness and she will actually cause the gatetown to cross over. Will put the PCs in the unusual situation of working against a celestial

-Riminali war: some want to create balance by destruction (i.e. destroying a new thing that upset the Balance) vs. a group who wants to do it by creation (i.e. create an opposing thing to balance the recent new thing) – E.g. if a lawful gatetown slid into Mechanus, do they push the chaotic town into Limbo or do they go to Mechanus to bring it back? How might the PCs be caught up in these manipulations?

-In Bedlam (gatetown to Pandemonium), try to find a criminal who is hiding among the deranged.

-Obad-Hai (N nature god) has begun to feud with Ehlonna (NG nature god) or one or one of the other Beastlands deities, and now his animals have blockaded Faunel and are attacking all the citizens. The PC's must journey to the realm of one or both of the gods and figure out how to stop the feud.

-In Sylvania (gatetown to Olympus), Dionysus arrives and mayhem ensues. Is there a method behind his madness?

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