14 Adventure Hooks

The $4,500 stretch goal for the Hexagram campaign. These little hooks were created with the world of Cidri in mind, but most of them could apply to any fantasy world, or any “real” world with fantastic elements. 

• The fields are ready for harvest, weeks ahead of schedule, and some of the plants don't match what the farmers swear they planted in the spring. Even the ones that do match are off – the color or shape or size is wrong.

• The sun and moon have switched places – sunrise was a week ago and you've had seven full moons in that time. It's getting really hot, and a week of werewolf attacks has everyone on edge.

• The party gets back to town after a two-week adventure but the townfolk swear they just left yesterday, and all the calendars back them up.

• A guardsman runs up to the PCs and says, “Laurence told me to give this to you at once!” He hands them a note which reads, “You're next. Two days.” What does the note mean, and who the heck is Laurence?

• Mirrors no longer reflect what is in front of them at that moment. Instead, they show events a minute, hour, or day earlier – or later. Can the PCs use this information to figure out what has happened and how to fix it before they suffer the grisly deaths they each saw in their mirrors this morning?

• It's night. Suddenly, all at once, the candles in your house go out. Except if you put your hand in the wrong place, you'll still get burned. You rush out into the street and cannot see the moon! Your neighbors are all around you, trying and failing to light torches. Then you hear the gruff voice of your local wizard. “Don't worry. We're working on it. Maybe ten minutes. Stay outside your houses. and don't light fires, and you'll be safe.”

• You keep waking up somewhere different from where you fell asleep. Sometimes in different clothes, sometimes with blood or dirt on your clothing.

• You are walking down a hill trail. Suddenly a canoe shoots past you, floating smoothly an inch or so above the ground. The paddler is wearing, not a life vest, but a leather jacket with elbow pads. He (she? That canoe is going fast!) goes around a slight bend ahead of you and then skillfully “shoots the rapids” below and is lost to sight. What did you just see?

• As you play with a little set of nesting dolls you found at an estate sale, you realize that each one you take out is bigger than the one before.

• Deep in a cavern, you discover primitive paintings showing a bison hunt. They are mostly purple, with accents of green and orange, and the people that they show are clearly Prootwaddles. The hunters are using a huge catapult loaded with what looks like Greek fire. The last painting shows the hunters carrying a still-smoldering bison on two large poles.

• The center of this dungeon contains a fountain of running blood. It doesn't seem to be particularly unholy or evil, and there's even a sense of tranquility that stems from being near it. It's just . . . blood. (A connoisseur will note that its composition is indeterminate, but seems to come from human or other sapient sources.) It seems like it could be quite a boon to vampires, necromancers, or others who dabble in blood-related matters, even if it isn’t inherently sinister. So, what do the heroes do with this oddity?

• The heroes learn of a secret academy that instructs advisors, seneschals, and princes in the fine art of duplicity. The records from this place alone (if they exist) would be worth a fortune, and the information would no doubt be immensely valuable to countless fiefdoms. Of course, those involved are some of the cleverest and most-treacherous sorts known to Cidri.

• This dungeon has a stairwell where any non-living thing dropped down it seems to disappear. It'll be heard to bounce down into darkness, but it'll never actually hit anything at the end, the sound instead just trailing off to silence. Going to the bottom of the steps reveals nothing. Some months later, the heroes pass by another ascending staircase . . . and they can hear the sound of items tumbling down it, getting louder and louder . . .

• Whenever this noble is near his dog, they both seem much more alert, aware, and intelligent than either of the two of them alone.