Been working on some items for publication lately, but here's something real quick for anyone playing a game with wandering do-gooders in need of some potential troubles and complications.
Local Troubles for the Wandering Magistrate [d20]
1. A drought has turned neighbor against neighbor. People are hoarding resources, and a famine may break out if rain does not come soon.
2. A child was born upon the night of a baleful moon with a set of horns. The mother has foreseen her death at the infant’s hands and wishes it banished. The father is distraught at choosing who he should love more.
3. A family has been banished to the woods beyond the edge of town for their godless behavior, but the children within that family believe they should not suffer for the sins of their parentage.
4. The stone masons have been denied their wages after repairing their lord’s fortress. The lord has claimed them, one and all, to be traitors to his banner. The masons have kidnapped his son and are holding him hostage.
5. The locals say a witch lives in the nearby wilderness and that she has made sick their infants. The witch claims to have never even visited the settlement and wishes only to be left to her dark rites.
6. A local clergyman, pockets laden with filthy lucre, attempted to flee the settlement but ended up dying in the wilds. No one knows where his gold went, but it was stolen. A crisis of faith is occurring, and none will bury the body for fear of a ghost.
7. A plague has broken out and the class divide within the settlement has grown fiercer as a result. The rich blame the poor for their filth, the poor gaze with hate upon the rich who have sealed themselves off in their estates.
8. A mountain cult, known well for keeping the pass clear of bandits and rubble, has been targeted by the state religion of a local lord. Both sides have a fair cause for stewardship, and bandits appear to be using the current chaos to incite greater violence.
9. Frogs have rained down from the sky, pelting the village in bloody little corpses. The elders of the village proclaim this to be due to the youth of the village not paying proper heed to the importance of the river trade. As a result of forced river trading, two teenagers have drowned. Everyone is upset.
10. Nobody can sleep anymore, there is a scuttling horror in the nearby wilds who is said to drink away the good dreams and leave only nightmares. The locals are losing their minds, and anyone who can get a good night’s rest is deemed to be in league with the Evil.
11. A wandering alchemist pleads for aid as her ointments and unguents are not merely snake-oil and she believes some local has framed her for the poisoning of a much hated, but highly wealthy, local warrior.
12. Two noble houses, long in good standing with one another due to an arranged marriage, are attempting to avert the divorce that would separate them. The couple divorcing harbor no ill will for one another, but the more their families meddle, the more they will begin to seek retribution.
13. A nun, ousted from her order, claims to know the existence of demons who hide within the flesh of the allegedly devout. Her proclamations have lead to the death of three prominent clergymen, and the church is unsure if they should do anything for fear of her followers.
14. A bestial creature from the neighboring wilderness wishes to stop encroachment upon the lands of its people. It attempts empathy but is crude in that. It warns of violence if man delves into the riches of its lands; riches they are not using. The local settlement desires to encroach.
15. Two armies are present on the road, each with a bickering officer who demand the right to pass first. The most jingoistic of the troops make veiled insults at the other side. Violence could break out at any moment.
16. The village banished its great hunter for killing the sacred boar three years ago, but they have seen the boar again since. They fear they have made a mistake and a man now may have been wrongly punished. They want to know what must be done for clemency.
17. A noblemen calls for a feast, inviting the magistrates to take part. While at the feast, the lead adviser to the nobleman does everything in her power to implicate the cruelties of the noblemen without speaking them aloud. She cares for the realm, he cares only for his feast.
18. A haunted fortress a few days away from the settlement is to be retaken by the son of a local lord. The spirits of the fortress wish to be remembered and then left in peace. Conflict and foul omens are imminent.
19. A once pure spring has been tainted and the locals blame a foreign merchant who passed through town. The merchant is many days away and has nothing but good things to speak about when it comes to the town. She spent time at the spring, but she did so in the company of locals.
20. A great beast lurks in the nearby wilds and the local nobility has invited you to hunt it with them. While hunting, an assassination attempt takes place but no one can recognize any clues from the assailants and the motive are not well known. Paranoia ensues.
Complications [d10]
1. The nature of the conflict is further complicated due to an issue of true love.
2. A kinslayer, long thought vanished into the wild, is the true perpetrator of the crimes.
3. Wicked spirits have clouded the hearts of those involved with hatred and violence.
4. A foreign infiltrator has seen this problem exacerbated for the benefit of their patrons.
5. This is all the punishment of a Divine entity, wishing to test the mettle of man.
6. A group of youths, unaffiliated with any faction, played with dark powers and are the true ones to hold responsible for any such travail.
7. The avaricious and hedonistic among the nobility caused this problem, and they’ll never admit it.
8. Mid-way through seeking to solve this issue, one faction will engage in an act of murder out of either rage or self-defense; further muddling a solution.
9. Local authorities have attempted to solve this problem to no avail and view any interlopers as overreaching their authority and treading upon their honor.
10. Both sides know they will be viewed as weak and lose face with their community if they relented.