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The heroes are intent on acquiring a fee or treasure. If it's a fee, you may wish to roll again on this page to learn the patron's goal. If it's a treasure, pay attention to the Settings section, which will dictate where the treasure is, if not who owns it.

Some bad guys have arrived and done some bad guy things. The PCs were none the wiser. The bad guys have now made good their escape, and the PCs have caught wind of it in time to chase them down before they make it back to their lair, their home nation, behind enemy lines, etc.

This is the simplest sort of adventure plot. The heroes have an area to investigate or travel through; they have encounters based on where they are. For instance, the traditional dungeon, where monsters are tied to specific rooms or areas. Or, if the heroes are travelling along a narrow valley or through an enchanted forest, they might suffer ambushes and other encounters fixed to various points along their travel plan. The plot, then, is getting to the villain by surviving the intervening obstacle encounters.

Most of the adventure takes place on the road, as the heroes are travelling from place to place. This is especially good for adventures where heroes are investigating a wide-ranging mystery, are part of a caravan, or are pursuing loathsome villains.

Our intrepid heroes were sold something very insidious item, a TIMESHARE. Now Tranan the CEO sits at Intravight headquarters counter her money. Can anyone stop his insidious company?

In wilderness areas, this will be a large community of demi-humans -- elves, dwarves, halflings, whatever -- or intelligent nonhumans such as orcs. If your action is taking place in a city, this could be a hidden community (such as a secret underground dwarf community) or a section of the city inhabited mostly by demi-humans.

Tranan The Gnome Bard

Tranan the Androgynous, is very particular about his gender, but she tells people a different gender each time. He wears flamboyant, outlandish clothing. She is very perceptive and insightful, but he can be dull and boring. Despite these set backs she constantly makes puns about his business and is still friendly. She is extremely embarrassed about scamming people and vehemently denies that he does any bad deeds.

Daleko Regional Manager of Intravight (Time Share Company).

Intravight sells itself as a resort headquarters real-estate company where it allows for guilds, parties, and adventurers to divide the cost of building ownership to help the little guy.

Wreten, Minotaur Cult Fanatic (m)

Wreten is wholly believes in Tranan's message and goals, his goal is to server Tranan to the fullest extent his body will allow. He takes pleasure in the pain and suffering of those who would take advantage of his master's generosity.

Intravight Credit Investigator

Wreten likes to call himself a Credit Investigator. First he sends friendly reminders, after all adventurers are busy people and it slips their mind to pay their loans. Then he sends threatening correspondences, either death threats, rogues, or even assassins. Lastly he goes in person...

Cahymm Tankian, Dragonborn Gladiator (f)

Cahymm is a very imposing lady. One of Tranan's most trusted employees. Taking a gladiator with a flair for pleasing an audience, Tranan put this dragonborn into sales. Ever since, Intravight has only increased its ever growing profits.

Intravight Salesperson

Cahymm is a saleswoman for this heinous company, and she is extremely good at her job. Those she can't convince to purchase one of Intravight's inviting seasonal vacation locations, she intimidates into purchasing one. Any who slander Tranan's humble business she deals with harshly.

For some reason, the heroes find themselves in the company of a villain. Perhaps he's a minion of this adventure's master villain; he may be guiding the heroes to wherever they must leave a ransom, or, if the master villain is forcing the heroes to perform some mission, this villain ally is along to make sure they do it right. Whatever the reason, he's competent, unpredictable, and out for himself.

With this monster encounter, combat may not be necessary. This monster encounter exists to alert the characters to the fact that something unusual is going on, a foreshadowing of their upcoming conflicts with the Master Villain.

A captured thief may accuse the character of putting him up to the theft; an abandoned mother may accuse the hero of fathering the child; a reputable witness (working for the Master Villain) may accuse the hero of a murder or robbery. The hero shouldn't know what he's accused of until he's hauled in by the authorities.

Actually, we're applying this term to any of many time-delay deathtraps. In this sort of trap, the villains capture the heroes and place them in a trap which will soon kill them -- it operates on a delay, often based on a timing device or a burning fuse.

This is a relatively short chase -- it only needs to go on for a mile or so before even the best horses are winded. If it goes on longer than that, the horses may collapse and perhaps die.

This is an ominous encounter: A fortune-teller predicts doom for one of the heroes, or for some community menaced by the Master Villain. Shortly after, some calamity should befall the hero: He can be attacked by an assassin, be in a building when it is struck by fire or an earthquake, or suffer other danger. Investigation of the events can then point the heroes toward the Master Villain as the event's instigator.

Finally, the villain may have some aberration or secret shame that will force him to flee when he is confronted with it. It could be something as simple as the fact that his nose is too big, or that he is a small and nebbishly wizard pretending to be some vast, powerful demonic power. When his shame is revealed, he is too humiliated to continue; this is a good option for comedy adventures.

If a wizard, demigod or god has forced the heroes to undertake this quest, he may be with them continually -- in spirit. He can't help them, but does magically watch everything they do. And when they do something he doesn't like, he tells them about it -- loudly and nastily. (This is distressing when they're trying to break into a fortress or sneak through enemy lines.)

This is much like the Ally Quandary, only at a greater distance. The heroes have been utilizing the aid of two (or more) powerful NPC allies. Now, in the course of the adventure, the heroes come across a task which can be accomplished in one of two ways -- say, through military intervention or by esoteric magic. The problem is, the NPC allies are arguing for different choices, and the one whom the heroes choose against will no longer aid them.

Once again, if the heroes have had too easy a time finding the artifact capable of destroying the villain, give them trouble this way: When they get to the place where the artifact is supposed to be contained, they find the coffer or chamber or whatever empty, obviously looted by robbers, who have scrawled such remarks as "Kelrog was here!" upon the walls.

If they have to work for the villain, it's due to some hold he has over them -- probably, he's kidnapped one of their NPCs and will kill this person if his demands aren't met. Put the heroes through the encounter where they have to do something they are loathe to do, such as sack and pillage a temple, before they have the opportunity to retrieve their friend.

Here, the heroes have been defeated -- captured by the Master Villain, or so thoroughly cut up by his minions that all believe them to be dead. And the heroes have learned, from the bragging of the villain, loose talk of his minions, or examination of clues, what is the crucial event of his master plan. In any case, the battered and bruised heroes must race to this site and have their final confrontation with the villain, bursting in on him and his minions just as the knife or final word or key is poised, and prevent the awful deed from taking place -- and, incidentally, defeat the master villain and minions who beat them previously.