Adventure hooks

Carnificius, god of death.

Economic Hooks

1. The PCs bought or were rewarded with the right to collect taxes in the empire's name: each place must pay an amount determined by the imperial census, while the surplus stays with the PCs. This might be a single adventure or a side quest during the campaign. Possible situations include:
• To calculate taxes based on unusual things such as the house's number of doors and windows.
• To convince the peasants and/or lords to pay without resorting to violence.
• Accept bribes.
• Manage payments in kind such as live goats, ripe fruits, iron ingots and medic slaves.
• To help or not to help people which can't pay because they were robbed? Perhaps to charge a future favor? Or should they be condemned to slavery until they pay their debts?
• The census is out of date because a flood ruined the region. Should the players compensate from their own pockets or try to convince the empire that the region can't pay?
• They acquire more than double of the estimated taxes. Should they pocket the excess and say nothing to local authorities? Do they tell them that the previous collectors were embellishing? And how the latter are going to react to being denounced?
• Tax collectors usually are, or at least are accompanied by, the eyes and ears of the senate and emperor. Will the players have this extra duty? Or are they being followed by one of these spies, called sicarcani? Whatever the answer is, they must be careful with what they say and do.

Colonial Hooks

1. To explore regions whose maps show nothing besides the coast's outline and a three-eyed serpent.
2. To find places with access to water, food and some explorable resource so that communities might be established. To ensure the local fruits are edible or at least chewable; to investigate possible venomous animals, ruins of dark granite, predators unafraid of people and the high number of lightning bolts falling in the same spot, a depthless pit.
3. To establish contact with natives to acquire geographical information, treatises of non-aggression and trade, warnings about local threats and to recruit guides. Which gestures are offensive or mean "do you want to marry me?" Why is it forbidden to enter the circle with Y-shaped stones in the north? A regional spirit might bring problems or help in exchange of exotic sacrifices such as the animals brought by the colonists? The orange crystals used by the barbarians as fake canines, where are they from?
4. To rescue shipwrecked colonists; help them to establish a village or fort and ensure they survive the coming winter; to train and lead them against barbarians or pirates.
5. Many colonies fail, but it is odd when a supply ship finds out that the colonists disappeared with no clues besides the mutilated wooden statues of the northern pantheon.
6. It is even weirder when the company in charge of exploring the region insists in bringing more colonists, like if nothing was wrong or the disappearances were part of a plan. Is someone trying to perform human sacrifice in distant lands where Carnificius, the god of death, is powerless?

Urban Rumors

1. The Zagrim gladiator team suffers so many fatal defeats at the arena because it is doing a disguised form of human sacrifice. The souls of those poor slaves are being given to devils as payment for the team's owner to acquire immortality.
2. The recent wave of crime made the council consider to legalize and regulate robbery. Each citizen would pay a tax to the thieves' guild instead of being assaulted.
3. I counted an odd number in the gargoyles of the Arcadian Triumphal Arch, I swear. There was one more, hairy and goblin-sized. No, I'm not crazy.
4. When the Palatinate Walls were built, the stones of a nearby necropolis were used. As a result, no one wants to garrison the towers 35 and 36 during the night.
5. There's going to be an auction in the harbour, right in front of the galleon Tritonia. The main artifact is a stuffed triceratops which they hunted at the Goblinoid Lands. A sailor told me that the beast had an owner, and her entire tribe followed them over the seas up to Kavaja. He also told me he wouldn't be surprised if they appeared at the auction.
6. The beggars want to create the guild of blinds, crippled and mendicants.
7. Do you remember what happened yesterday? No? Why am I the only one that remembers that bizarre festival which took over the city? Does the name Maruxo means anything to you?

Miscellaneous Adventures

1. A fiefdom celebrates a death festival dedicated to Carnificius every hundred years, using an altar which is buried afterwards. The scheduled date is near, but the local lord finds that the map with the altar's location has disappeared. Be it an accident or not, the altar must be found and the ritual sacrifices to the god of death made. What the lord knows is that the altar was buried as if it was a person, so there must be a tombstone or something similar.
2. A slave approaches one of the players and asks for him to buy her from her current owner, but refuses to say why.
3. The players receive the mission of researching the archives of undeciphered prophecies and try to solve them.
4. The guarded groves are areas untouched by the woodsmen during the expansion of the local agriculture decades ago. Whoever tried to cut certain trees suffered accidents and problems. Those which insisted found big footprints around their houses. The few which weren't intimidated and went inside the groves, disappeared. Now, among farms and villages, there are untouched woods where one doesn't go to collect firewood or herbs, hunt birds nor rabbits. The local lord himself left offerings near the groves to keep the peace with something unknown apart from the fact that it was there, watching. But his successor don't has such memories, seeing only obstacles for wheat fields and lumber for ships.
5. A magic weapon is known by the horrible and painful wounds it causes. Many, specially evil beings, want it because of this. Mundane and magical inspections reveal a mystic aura, but nothing which justifies it causing such wounds. The truth is that the weapon is a religious symbol of strange entities undetectable to normal creatures because they live in an alternate reality. These entities follow the weapon and its user all the time. Their religion worships pain, flagellation and dismemberment. Every time the weapon is used, these entities gather around its target and have fun surgically ripping apart the flesh in ways that are pleasant to them. All in a moment.  
6. An elven alchemist and botanist developed a deep-rooted bush which absorbs gold particles and accumulates them on its leaves. This allows one to find gold much faster than with standard dwarf methods.
7. The city where the adventurers meet falls to a great fire. Even if they try to help, two thirds of the houses and buildings become ashes. The locals are furious and look for anyone which seems guilty. They lock up all foreigners and travellers, including the players.  Will they accept being thrown in prison? Will they try to appeal their innocence? Will they run away and maybe even find out who did it? What if it was an accident?
8. Any shardokan dwarf can tell you that, for every mountain peak one reaches, there are other nineteen nameless mountains collecting the frozen bodies of fools and adventurers. Hunger, strong winds, landslides, cold, trolls, lack of air, unknown inhabitants and avalanches are the main reasons.
9. These mountains are best avoided. Whoever passes through them says they project dark shadows even during the night. The peaks darken everything during the day , and the sunlight only reaches the uninhabited valleys two or three weeks a year. No vegetation grow there, just fungi and other sick things. When I passed through there, my vision seemed to have more grey tones than it should, the water of the stream was even more tasteless than normal water. As always, babuskhas explain the problem: a meteor fell there long ago.
10. The whole town gossips about the "duel of the dead one": a count's son seeks a champion willing to be possessed by the soul of his dead father to participate of a judicial duel with a rival lord.
11. One of the very expensive trains imported from Scarnost suffered some kind of poltergeist, turning the crew and passengers into undead. Since then, it has reappeared in many places alongside the railway, haunting villages and kidnapping people. The empire offers a large reward for anyone who manages to reclaim the train, and will get double if the reclaimed train retains the ability to move without coal.
12. A slave wants help to be freed or to run away, in exchange of using or teaching a technique or information of his homeland. It might be a type of death blow, the location of the treasures his tribe buried when enslaved or a way to create exotic items from animals.
13. A terrible red dragon creates a group of bandits which secretly operate in metropolises throughout the empire. Their symbol are blood-red chest tattoos which they are unafraid to show. They're known as the "Red Hydra" due to the ability their members acquire: as long as one of them stands, the others revive after a few seconds.
14. The group is sent to an isolated location to investigate the mysterious gathering of dark elves, mainly females, occurring regularly. There are few details to go by, but the group knows that the elves have religious relations to some arachnid entity. Although this might give some clear ideas of what they face, they might be surprised by pacific feidarashis which worship the spider and moon as divine symbols. The moon represents the birth of the spider (a "pupa" which slowly opens up). They see the creature as a symbol of well done work (webs) and use white, web-like clothing.
15. During a long voyage, the group is approached by monsters. They're a small band of nefilims which follow a kind of "matriarch" or "queen". She can communicate with the adventurers and ask them to escort her during her passage through the Ebony Valley. She wishes to reach a very specific place to create a new nest (which might threaten nearby humanoid communities). The players will get rewards if they agree (like becoming "honorary members" of the nest), but will have to fight waves of nefilims, coming from an enemy nest.
16. Some travellers say that a certain bridge was only built due to an agreement with the troll king. The fact that it is twice as big as any other, forming an arch over a dark chasm, is supposedly proof that it wasn't built by normal people. Others say the regular times someone falls off the bridge and disappears like if swallowed by the abyss, aren't the fault of the strong winds and the lack of a handrail. The nearby citizens also never organize search parties to go down there.
17. I need you to take this message and chest to the chieftain of the Torgar tribe. The locals are restless and he is our best bet to calm down the region. If no one fights back against that Lord of Beasts that the barbarians been listening to, I fear my county will be targeted by the biggest goblinoid invasion since the Retaliations War. Take this necklace: each one of the hanging totems means a favor to be collected from the corresponding tribe. Hospitality, guides, information, a favor among them is worth more than gold.
18. The Bronze Fraternity is a group which detours travellers towards an old statue. It has magnetic properties which attract and crush iron-made objects towards itself, as well as its unfortunate users. The fraternity believes that such sacrifices of metal and lives strengthen the statue: one day it will come to life as an avatar of Corallin. And will take revenge against those which use iron, the metal which generates so much death and destruction in the form of swords, shovels and axes.
19. The imperial bureaucracy employs seers to, among other things, find out if someone is withholding taxes. Necromancers can be used to interrogate ghosts which died before paying their dues. These specialists focus on merchants and feudal lords, but all it takes is to own the empire a lot of money. The player characters are paying their taxes, right?
20. A meteor fell next to the adventurers. If it came from the planetary ring, it is likely to have veins of adamant. But it can also host nefilims, demons which reproduce and grow stronger parasitizing mortals. And the adventurers certainly aren't the only ones to see it fall...
21. The thorakitai believe that Ourgos created the dwarfs from ants: communal animals, disciplined, strong and diligent. This is seen by most more as a metaphor than a reality. That is, until four-armed dwarfs with exoskeletons burst from the ground in several places. The first attempts of the god of work still live, and want to be recognized by their creator. Even if they have to eliminate the ones chosen by Ourgos.
22. When they go to war, goblinoids bury what they can't take with them. Dozens of thousands of goblinoids, including entire tribes, never returned to their lands since the Retaliations War. This created a race among goblinoids and foreigners, Artifacts, enchanted totems and even ships full of shrunken heads may be waiting for a new owner.
23. Please, I beg that you help my lord. This fief was preparing a sacrifice to the entire pantheon: prized bulls, jewels of silver and sapphire, axes of wootz steel, nabatu spices and marble busts. The duke spent years amassing a fortune which once sacrificed, would ensure our prosperity for an entire generation. But all of it was stolen, and we don't how or by whom. In the name of Eonas Lugonnatus Astures IX, duke of Astures, I bring this message: "all the fortune in this duchy was lost, I have no coin and amethyst to offer you, neither magic objects worthy of your deeds and fames. But if you help us in pleasing the gods, I promise a tenth of the treasures will be sacrificed in your names and that you'll receive my personal written testimony of your achievement, including the duchy seal". What is your answer, gentlemen? -Elbrequerén, elf, trusted slave and majordomo of the Astures family for the last hundred and thirty years.
24. The popular story among the shardokan dwarfs is that Karzelek was a dwarf with a great fear that the sky fell over his head. He gradually worked deeper and deeper in the mine, until one day he stopped going outside. When the mine was closed, he stayed, and his soul was absorbed by the earth. He became a spirit which might help or punish miners, anxious for the company of others but dangerous towards those which fail with the "underground etiquette", acts which would disrespect the soil and stone. Things like hiding one's face, throw stones for no reason, disturbing the sleep of bats, undoing the silence and darkness.
25. A barony is cursed by a terrifying witch. The people are ravaged by a disease which deforms them into hybrids of humanoids and sheep. The witch lives into a nearby fetid cave and she always appears smoking her pipe-cane, mounted over a flying, black-fleeced sheep. She conspires against the barony until her condition is met: she wishes to marry the baron. Is it true love?
26. A wizard known for his extensive knowledge, Lhidal, became extremely scatterbrained since his two sons went away. First, he forgets the spells he memorized even before they're used. He later starts to lose memories until the numbness takes over his body. It's possible to save him accessing Lhidal's Mnemonic Fortress, a dungeon which represents his essence, inside his mind. It is infested by small nefilims which feed on it and its inhabitants (becoming temporarily stronger as they do so). Two vaguely humanoid beings which resemble Lhidal's sons lead the nefilims.
27. An unthinkable event happens in a small town and shocks the population: a child commits suicide, throwing herself off a temple. While the investigations take their course, with no results, the child's blood mixes with the negative feelings generated by the people. This creates a being of pure evil in the form of a dark-red slime capable of corroding hope itself. It is intelligent, although it can't communicate without a host. It currently hides inside the senior cleric's soul. This supposedly explains why the religion's teachings have suddenly changed into nihilist lessons.
28. A disease infects a village's people and makes their souls evil and putrid, allowing total control by the devil (diinferi) which created the sickness. The "virus" is actually a word, known by the uninfected as the "forbidden word". Just to hear it is enough to become infected. One is then compelled by the devil to say it to others they see. The players must find the cure, finding a way to forget the word forever, as well as destroying the devil which made it.
29. A mischievous fairy steals the vision of one of the players. Magic can't revert the process and destroying the fairy is extremely difficult (either by it being very powerful or because it hides in places where it is nearly impossible to reach it). On its own twisted way, it wishes that this forces the players to do its bidding: to help a blind woman to achieve her dream of becoming part of the imperial army.
30. An once peaceful city is being attacked by glass constructs. They're fragile, but have sharp edges, are very agile and even difficult to be seen due to their transparency. If the players investigate, they find that the golems come from a glass blower's home: he shapes them into a facsimile of his beloved, which has rejected him and lives in the attacked city.
31. An individual was judged by his crimes as someone so evil that he deserves two deaths: he must be killed, revived and then killed again. He might or might not have escaped the prison. Anyway, whoever accepts the quest must kill the criminal in the arena. Then they must use the strength of the public's feelings and a shamanic ritual to travel into the ley web, rescue the criminal's soul to then kill him once more. But what if the public doesn't agree with the sentence? Or the players? And what if is someone they know?
32. The Infinite mountain is for many the highest in the whole northern empire, simply because no one has been able to determine its height. The reason is that above three thousand meters, it is hidden by a perpetual hurricane which rises as tall as someone can see. Besides, earthquakes are common in the region, as well as rocks which the locals say were thrown from the mountain itself. The local lore offers several explanations for this: someone says that her great-aunt told her about how the hurricane is a prison and something tries to escape by digging the mountain; another one swears that the mountain is a volcano and a being made of clouds prevents it from erupting; a third one complains about exaggerations and tells his theory which says that the phenomenon is the sky trying to impregnate the earth; his mother slaps him and apologizes, for it is obvious the hurricane is piercing the mountain to free something.