1001 Adventure Hooks for Fantasy RPG's

[Cecil Wathen]

This book is designed to be a useful tool for aspiring Dungeon Masters, Game Masters and other Lords (and Ladies) of RPG games to dip into, whether it be to inspire a side-quest or even provide the starting point for an entire campaign. It was developed primarily for the d20 system formatted for Dungeons & Dragons but can be easily adapted to fit almost any fantasy setting. Some of the adventure hooks have the potential to be very serious, some dramatic, and some just flat-out hilarious or strange. They are merely the springboards from which your own story can evolve.

The adventure hooks are in no particular order or grouping so you are free to either read through them in the order they are written and choose one most fitting to your campaign, or simply open to a page at random and let the story fall however it may.

I hope that this book will inspire intriguing side-quests, legendary plotlines, madness, and mayhem that will hold strong in the memories of gaming groups for years to come. Remember that within every person beats the heart of a hero, even if it is only for a few hours on a Saturday.

Enjoy, but travel safe brave adventurer, for many dangers lie ahead.

~ C.C. Wathen

[Cecil Wathen]

1. Whilst wandering through a previously peaceful forest on their way back from a mission, the party comes across a hill giant toddler sitting on a boulder. The 10ft toddler is sobbing, its parents nowhere in sight, and night is falling.

2. The party are finally getting some well-deserved rest in a tavern. The beds are comfortable, their bellies full of mead and good food... but they are woken by screaming in the city outside. As they leave the tavern they see a colossal dragon falling out of the sky, landing on the city outskirts and taking out a large piece of the city wall and several businesses as it crashes to the ground. The dragon is very much dead, but has no apparent injuries. Witnesses, including several members of the city watch, say the dragon appeared from the north and circled the city outskirts twice before it fell to earth like a stone.

3. As the group are shopping for supplies in the local market, a large chest scuttles by on its for stout legs like a runaway bulldog. Its lid flaps open and closed, revealing gold and gems glistening inside as it scampers past. Before they have chance to react, the party are shoved aside as a dozen villagers barge past them, chasing after the animated chest.

4. The place where the party store their valuables (bank, tavern, castle, cave etc.) has been robbed. In place of all of their belongings is a note, simply saying “I'll pay it back when next I see you.”

5. During a prolonged, difficult war against the Big Bad Empire, the city that the party calls home is all but eradicated. It appears to be the end of days and all hope is fading, but oh look! The priests of the city have found a way to resurrect the ancient hero of legend, the only person who could stand a chance to defeat the Big Bad Empire! The only problem is... the hero is quiet happy being dead, thank you very much, and has no wish to join the fight.

6. A werewolf in his hybrid form staggers up to the party, wearing a collar with 'puppy' stitched on the side. He looks exhausted, underweight and incredibly distressed, and as he collapses in front of the party he begs them to help him. In the distance a young half-orc girl is skipping towards them, her cute brightly coloured dress blowing in the breeze, her huge arm muscles rippling, and in her hand is a leash.

7. Whilst relaxing in their favourite tavern, a courier approaches one of the members of the party and hands him a note. It is from their parents, demanding they return home now. It seems that the party member has a wedding to attend in a weeks time... their own.

8. A harsh storm is blowing and the adventurers decided to take shelter in a large cave. Unfortunately, the cave is the lair of an ancient and powerful red dragon, sitting atop a pile of priceless treasure. Strangely though, despite the fact that the party are low level, the dragon seems absolutely terrified of them.

9. The characters awake in a completely unfamiliar but beautiful, sunlit garden with what they assume is the mother of all hangovers. As they are struggling to get their bearings, an overjoyed villager runs up to them and brightly cheers “You're finally free!”. When asked to explain, the villagers says that the tales tell of the heroes fighting valiantly against a Medusa that had been decimating the village, but they failed in their attempts and were turned to stone. They have been statues for the past two hundred years.

10. After travelling with a caravan for a while, the party discovers that one of the other travellers is a fortune teller. When they ask to have their fortunes told, every card the fortune teller draws is the Death card.

[Cecil Wathen]

11. A farmer with a huge crossbow, a crying daughter and five big brothers comes looking for one of the party members.

12. On the night of the winter equinox festival a band of dwarves led by a red-skinned orc drive their sleigh drawn by eight dire boars into the village and start setting fire to the houses and raiding all the gifts.

13. The hero's home village is in mass hysteria. No caravans or travellers have arrived in the village for over a month, and any time anyone tries to leave, no matter how far they walk in a straight line, they always find themselves back on a road into the village within a few hours.

14. The town lies in a quiet, tucked-away valley that is surrounded by six desolate, wooded hills. Everything is peaceful and quiet and safe when everyone goes to bed. When people wake up in the morning they see that there is now a castle atop each hill, having apparently been built in silence overnight without anyone noticing.

15. Whilst passing through a new town the heroes come across an execution that is about to take place. The crime of the condemned? Being really, really, ridiculously attractive.

16. An ageing Duke undergoes an amazing rejuvenation. His hair is long and red and thick again, and instead of limping around his castle with again he once more cuts a dashing figure sitting astride a proud courser. His son is shocked and bitterly disappointed by this, as he was due to inherit everything the Duke owned upon his passing. He will greatly reward any who discover the secret to his father's rejuvenation and figure out a way to undo it.

17. A mighty dragon lands in the middle of the town square, asking for help from anyone willing to assist it. Thieves have stolen his favourite teaspoon, and he wants help getting it back.

18. Whilst walking through the town the party is stopped by an old crone. The crone gives a kitten to each of the party members. She claims that if ever the kitten should die, the person will die with it.

19. One of the heroes is being haunted by the ghost of an old woman they once killed by accident. Every time the hero does something 'naughty', the ghost hits them with a wooden spoon.

20. In the middle of a downpour the party is taking shelter inside a tavern. Suddenly chaos breaks out near the door as people charge in claiming a mad wizard has cast a spell in the town square and set fire to the rain.

[Cecil Wathen]

21. Whilst coming into the city, the horses pulling the caravan of a very influential and important trader spooked and collided with the donkey of a poor potato farmer. The donkey did not make it and the poor farmer was badly injured. The government of the city completely ignored the pleas from the farmer to seek repayment from the rich and powerful trader, and he has turned to the party for help.

22. The NPC that has been travelling with the party for a while takes a significant portion of their coins to go and buy a beast that he says holds the clue to unravelling the current mystery. He comes back the next day with an ornate cage containing a parrot. Its plumage is beautiful shades of green and blue, but there is just one small problem. It is very much a dead parrot, despite the fact the NPC keeps claiming that it is ‘just resting’.

23. The party are walking through a forest when they hear a deep, booming voice calling out “Help! I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!” Upon investigation the party discovers that an elderly arthritis-riddled giant has indeed fallen and can’t get up again.

24. Unicorns are renown for being very intelligent, highly powerful and incredibly peaceful creatures. Therefore, when a villager tells the party that one keeps killing townsfolk that wander too near the forest, something must be not quite right here.

25. The head of a major school of magic has just been exiled from his position as he was caught using a scrying spell to spy on the young virgins in a nearby church.

26. The king of a major kingdom hires the party to help track down his beloved rabbit companion, which got stolen in the night by bandits.

27. After a fierce storm which lead to the entire village being hidden in their underground homes for three days straight, people finally emerged and were rather surprised to discover a 50ft Kraken slowly dying on top of the rubble of the Lady of the Land’s home. The mystery is: how did the Kraken get there when the village is in a desert that is a two-month horse ride away from the nearest ocean?

28. A juvenile dragon has fallen in love with one of the party members and will try to attack and kill anyone or anything the causes harm to them or tries to stop the dragon from being with its ‘mate’ – including the other party members.

29. On arrival in a new town, the adventurers are told of a magical portal inside one of the temples. No one is quite sure where it goes or what is on the other side – none who have gone into it have ever returned. All they knew is that if you listen closely you can hear what sounds like the ocean, and there is an occasional smell of bacon radiating from it.

30. The adventurers sign up for training sessions in a warrior school that has developed an excellent reputation in the kingdom. The minotaur instructor, however, seems to be quite mad and keeps insisting that the best way to learn to fight is by battling deadly monsters while blindfolded.

[Cecil Wathen]

31. The party have defeated the Big Bad/ rescued the princess/ retrieved the Thingum or done whatever it was their quest-of-the-day is. They go back to their headquarters to relax, unwind and count their treasure. However as they enter the headquarters they see that they are already there, relaxing, unwinding and counting out their treasure.

32. After spending weeks protecting the daughter of the King, taking her far away from her homeland in order to save her from the Big Bad that is set out to destroy her, the signs start to mount up to suggest that she might not be as innocent as previously believed.

33. Whilst undercover in a bar, trying to route out the mystery, the party are offered a drink they have never heard of before. With each sip, they grow a new body part. A second nose, a third thumb, a hunchback, a wing, a tentacle arm…

34. One of the adventurers wakes up in the morning feeling a little odd. They look in the mirror to see that they have been cursed, and now look exactly like the Big Bad they have been hunting down for the past two months!

35. Whilst out on a ship journey, the crew are both surprised and terrified to see tentacles spilling out from the hold, and the Captain is nowhere to be found.

36. The party are sent to retrieve a valuable artefact for a well known and respected local gentleman. The item must be intact and undamaged or he won’t pay up. The problem arises when they get to the location where the artefact is and discover that it has been transformed into a monster hell-bent on destroying the group.

37. A battle has been raging in the nearby Magical Academy for three days; instructors versus students. Curses are being cast and spells are being slung, along with textbooks, magical ingredients and even the odd unlucky familiar. There have been many casualties on both sides, and yesterday there was the first fatality. What the hell happened to cause this chaos, and how can it be stopped?

38. The group are wandering around in the forest when they come across a large hole in the ground. A bit of checking reveals that the hole is actually a portal, leading to a pivotal moment of time in their past – and giving them an opportunity to change it.

39. After spending weeks helping out with investigations into a murder case, the party are abruptly taken off the case with no explanation or chance to appeal. Two days later, the main suspect they were closing in on has escaped and both of the witnesses are found dead in their beds.

40. The heroes manage to corner a gnome that they know can lead them to the lair of the Big Bad. The gnome panics, reaches into the sleeve of his robes, and pulls out an 8ft tall scythe-wielding minotaur.

41. Whilst on their travels, the group come across a small village whose religious beliefs seem to centre around pushing ornate and highly valuable chests full of treasure into a volcano.

42. A dragon charges at the heroes, teeth snapping and claws ready to shred… but just before it pounces, it suddenly turns into a chicken. The bird squawks in confusion and flails its ineffectual wings before trying to flee.

43. It’s the day before the annual coronation celebration horse race in town! However, rumours are flowing around that the horse of one of the riders is actually a polymorphed monster, set to slaughter the thousands of people that will turn up to watch the races, but no one knows which one it might be.

44. The group have been kidnapped, stripped of all their possessions and thrown into an illegal fighting pit to battle to the death with a demon. The only weapons they are permitted? Two mangoes.

45. An artefact in a cave must be destroyed to prevent the oncoming apocalypse. It can only be destroyed on this particular day, and only by a sentient being willing to sacrifice its own life in return.

46. In an evil-aligned town, there is a devil that worships the Goddess of Pain and pays people to disfigure themselves in her name. It is all very consensual and considered fairly normal in the town. He attempts to hire the party to track down and stop whoever it is that is spreading rumours that he is buying slaves to torture, because it is giving his ‘business’ a bad name.

47. The party finally manages to break into the Big Bad’s secret mountain base. In the entryway there is a gigantic wall-to-wall pool, filled with formaldehyde and zombie dire sharks.

48. After arriving in a normal-seeming kingdom they have never visited before, the party are taken to visit the duke of one of the districts. His name is Tiberius Rexington. He is about 30ft tall, has short arms, a long muzzle full of dagger-like teeth, and looks remarkably like a dinosaur…

49. The group are arriving back in their home town after several months on the road. They are startled to discover that, while they have been gone, the town has elected a government that has a zero-tolerance policy against adventurers, and plans to drive the heroes out of their lands.

50. The ruler of the land is holding a masked ball at his palace, and all attendees must be polymorphed to look like a monster as their costume. All is fun and games, until some of the ‘costumed attendees’ start attacking.

[Cecil Wathen]

51. One of the party members has taken gravely ill, so they go to visit the town healer. After spending a while assessing the patient, the healer looks grim. “Well”, he says, “the good news is that you’ll get a disease named after you.”

52. The day is saved! The dragon has been slain and the town is no longer living under its tyranny! Huzzah! However, as the group are heading back to the town they see a wizard charging at them, summoning a lightning storm and screaming “YOU KILLED MR WUFFLES!”

53. On their third night in the town, the party get back to their inn rooms to find what looks like voodoo dolls in each of their beds.

54. Ten years ago, the grateful villagers saved from the monstrous invasion erected a statue in celebration of the heroes that saved them. Strangely though, on the night of the tenth anniversary of the victorious attack, the statue starts to glow with a pale green light.

55. Fears and horrific rumours have begun to run rampant in the kingdom, as all the baby boys keep being born with inch-long fangs.

56. The town is slipping into chaotic disarray as people keep having dreams about one another’s deepest, darkest secrets.

57. This morning a group of ten people, including the party, boarded a stag coach for a tour around the town. However, when they all get out at the end of the trip, they discover there are only nine people present. No one can remember who the tenth person was, what they looked like or when they might have gone missing.

58. Hell froze over. Literally. Thousands of demons are breaking their way through, seeking refuge on the surface plane until their homeland can be restored.

59. While on an otherwise routine mission, the party rescue a young girl and her doll. She claims the doll is real and spends hours chatting inanely with it. Everyone just dismisses it as childish imagination. However, if anyone picks up the doll they hear it telepathically speaking to them, outlining dozens of brutal ways they could kill the rest of the group and make off with all their possessions.

60. Relaxing in the tavern, one member of the group keeps getting harassed by the tavern cat. It is a huge, ugly creature, and keeps pawing against their legs and meowing loudly for attention. Eventually, it hops onto the table and stands in front of them before speaking in common tongue. “Would you stop being rude and listen to me for a minute?”

61. Two dragons are in the palace courtyard, arguing angrily over a potential prophecy. The debate is getting very heated, and the heroes must find a way to settle the argument before a fight breaks out and half the city becomes collateral damage.

62. An infamous bounty hunter has been hired to bring back the skin of one of the adventurers.

63. The adventurers receive an anonymous package that contains only a shiny stone and the location of a nearby landmark.

64. The group goes to sleep in the tavern, and everything seems normal and well. When they wake up in the morning, however, the town is completely abandoned and it looks like it has been that way for many years.

65. Waking up in the morning after the first snowfall of the year, the residents are horrified to discover gigantic three-toed footprints encircling the village.

66. A town elder is close to death, and the ruler of the town hires the party to decide just whom his business should be passed on to. He has no children, and his business is breeding hippogriffs.

67. A merchant comes to the heroes to ask them to retrieve a chest that was stolen by a werewolf pack. When the group finds the werewolves, they are told the merchant has been hiring mercenaries to hunt and kill them so he could trade their pelts.

68. The party are hired as marshals to escort a powerful fallen paladin back to the city, where he is to stand trial for his crimes.

69. A young gnome has been following the group for days, playing harmless but annoying pranks on them. The group don’t know that the gnome is trying to fit in and by accepted by its peers in a classic peer-pressure scenario.

70. The city is a small and peaceful one that has not seen battle for many generations. Two decades ago a young wyvern made the gatehouse its home and is now very settled there. However, word is spreading that a city nearby is planning to attack and they must get ready for a likely siege… meaning they have to try to find some way to get the wyvern out of its lair.

[Cecil Wathen]

71. One of the hero’s brothers was a guard in a town, but he was accidentally killed in a raid four days ago. The brother’s wife is refusing to accept a weregeld for him as the rule of the law states. Instead, she tries to talk the heroes into avenging her husband’s death by killing his murderer’s siblings, wife, children and grandchildren.

72. A cruel but highly effective lord lost all his lands and titles to an equally cruel and malicious lord who took all of his lands, possessions and titles. The fallen lord was banished and blinded, and left to wander the forests. He is alone, pitiful and dying when the party come across him.

73. One of the heroes learns through an oracle that their father, long thought dead, still lives.

74. A lesser lord of the city has lead a cruel and wicked life. The ghosts of those he has wronged now haunt him, and they cause him intense pain and misery. He finally has remorse, and is working to make amends with his victims and their families, but is still haunted. He seeks help to finish settling his debts so that hopefully he can live out the rest of his life in peace.

75. As the heroes are trekking back from their latest conquest, they pass by a cattle farm polluted with the horrid stench of putrefied flesh. As they get closer they see a team of ranch hands cleaning up the remains of several exploded cows. As they look on in horror, another cow spontaneously gives birth to a brand new and fully matured cow, causing the impromptu mother cow to explode.

76. The lord of the land and his army have recently turned from the path of good and sworn allegiance to Hextor, the God of war, tyranny and massacre. All who oppose them are stolen into slavery or slaughtered as sacrifices to Hextor, but spies for good believe that the lord is being controlled and manipulated by another.

77. In a city run as a republic, an ambitious general seeks to rule alone and establish himself as the start of a royal line. Through various tactics he has managed to bring the merchants and many of the nobles under his thumb and made enough powerful friends to change the rule of the city from a republic into a dictatorship. His wife is distraught by this and hires the heroes to help stem her husband’s ambitions.

78. A mated pair of good dragons are on the city council, but their incompatible natures mean they are often fighting. Each fight brings with it more damage to the building, and the rest of the council are getting wearisome of their bickering.

79. A prophecy is discovered that one of the heroes will be polymorphed into a sheep before the next full moon.

80. The queen of the land has given birth to a monster, vile and terrible and bloodthirsty. A rumour is spreading amongst the townsfolk that the birth is a result of her laying with her brother, not the king.

81. After stumbling across a ruined monastery in the wilderness, the characters enter the courtyard and find next to a sacred statue a neatly stacked pile of severed heads, each with a parchment in its mouth reading, "Please return to owner."

82. Politics are getting nasty, as local opposition against the ruler have a hooded leader who has been inspiring chaos in the streets. It is discovered that the hooded figure is the brother of one of the heroes. Following another string of riots that resulted in eleven deaths, a bounty is placed on their head.

83. It is revealed that only through human sacrifice will the village ever be free of the drought that has plagued it for many years. Two much loved and well-respected elders volunteer to step into the fire… but they are the parents of two of the heroes.

84. The bachelor king has always been a keen huntsman and owns hundreds of hunting hounds, raising taxes each year to pay for his collection. The people of the land were furious anyway, but are now about to launch a revolt after discovering that the king forced the city’s high priest, with the penalty of death if he refused, to marry him to his favourite bitch.

85. The local hospital has recently become the scene of an increasing number of grisly, unexplained deaths. The party is hired to investigate and discover that one of the maids sometimes slays her patients instead of healing them. She usually appears to be perfectly normal and sane, and has no memory of committing these gruesome murders.

86. A married friend of the groups begins to have an adulterous affair with a mysterious woman who seems to give him much happiness and zest in his life. Then his wife goes missing. A week later the party are accosted by her ghost, who demands a proper burial for her body (she doesn’t know where it is) and revenge against the adulterers.

87. In the village it is once more time for the Great Hunt! Each unmarried person can go into the wilderness armed only with a knife, spear and a bow and arrow but no armour. Whoever comes back with the best live catch gets to select any unmarried person from the village to be wed to.

88. A young artist has promised her most recent masterpiece to the prince of the land. Unfortunately, her friend showed it to a foreign noble who took a shine to it and took it for himself. Without starting a war, the heroes must organise a way to get the painting back from the foreigner and to the prince.

89. On returning from their latest adventure the heroes find a dead goblin sprawled on the ground, face up in the middle of their room. His swollen left hand, stuck in a glass pickle jar, is wrapped about some crumpled parchment. There's definitely writing of some sort visible on the parchment.

90. Out in the wilderness the party comes across a rather spectacular sight. A gigantic rock is covered by and surrounded with young dragons of several different species, all in pairs and having battles of riddles. Nearby them is the obvious prize, hidden under a large sheet covered in runic markings and guarded by a much larger dragon that is overseeing the tournament.

91. "I knew the warlock would be angry when we banished him, but I didn't see the whole undead-owlbear-projectile thing coming."

92. An ominous emblem begins appearing in all the paintings, tapestries, engravings and other artworks across the city.

93. When the party enter a new village, all of the villagers spontaneously start worshipping one of the members like a deity, including making sacrifices in their name.

94. A young red dragon has appeared in a small, poor village, claiming itself the reincarnation of one of the Gods of old. The villagers are bowing to its ever-increasing demands, but something far more sinister is going on and the dragon is merely a distraction.

95. "There was a half tonne of gold coins in there! Did you see a cart? Any orcs or ogres? A dragon?! It's not like it just got up and walked away!"
"Actually, sir..."

96. A ship of pirates has decided to recruit the heroes to help man their ship. And by recruit, they mean 'capture and force into work'.

97. A toll station has been set up by a group of thugs on a bridge that the heroes need to cross. In the case of the heroes, the thugs have decided that a fair price is everything they are carrying, including the princess they are escorting from one city to another.

98. The large menagerie in the city is in chaos after a druid, angry at the supposedly cruel way the animals were being kept, freed them all and turned them against the visitors and keepers. The party must choose whether to align with the city patrol and use force to get the animals back under control, or side with the druid and get all the captive beasts out and to freedom.

99. Not long after the heroes sold some items to a merchant, thugs appear to get payback on them, claiming that the goods were forgeries and fakes.

100. A man is arrested for mass murder and found to be insane. Piles of corpses were found on his property, neatly stacked torsos with the skin peeled off and the limbs removed. The man readily admits the work is his, though he claims he was only chopping down trees, removing their branches, debarking them, and then stacking them to season.