I have three upcoming games, which I'll be springing on my people in the next few weeks when I am on vacation. If you're a player in my game it would behoove you not to read too much of this, as it will ruin the surprise.

As always this will mostly serve as a fast and loose outline of what I plan to do.

Setting: The Middle Kingdoms, my homebrew.

The players will start out in Beign, a wild west frontier style setting where a creatures worth is measured by it's ability to survive. Like the Wild West of folk lore, and television, towns will be rough and tumble frontier settlements with little authority beyond that found in a good sword hand. Natural resources are common and often taken for granted. For the last two or so years their characters, which will be fifth to sixth level, have made a name for themselves as rascals, roustabouts, adventurers or whatnot. But then things just sort of slowed down, and for the last six or so months they've just had to make a living based on their non adventure related skills. (Tanners, carpenters, loggers, whatever...)

The adventure starts with a Dwarven Lord, who is sort of a robber baron/ Nouveau riche  who's powerful and rich, owning several mining, logging and hunting operations. And while his money can buy him a lot, it can't buy everything. He desires to find a place in proper dwarven society, but has no proper claim to any lands or title under Dwarven Law. A few months back he found a Lord in the Kingdom to the south who's not just down on his luck, but damn destitute! His lands are being repossessed by creditors, he's an alcoholic, and pretty much in a depressing situation. So our Dwarven Robber Baron offers him a deal, the hand of oldest daughter in exchange for the title, the lands and the claim to proper Dwarven society.

So he loaded his daughter up, and sent her off via wagon train to Vro, the Kingdom to the south, with a dowry and a small company of bodyguards. But then he's heard nothing since, and now three months have passed-given that mail and news travel slow he is just now starting to panic-both over his daughter and his dowry, which is a considerable sum.

He's sent word three times, only to be postponed by the groom to be. Now he wants the PC's to investigate.

So that's the background.

Weather and Climate: The game will start in late spring, with a few light showers, but no significant weather events until they hit Vro. I want to highlight the differences between the two in this way. Beign will be wild, but pristine, with decent weather. When they hit Vro it will turn sour, with clouds and more frequent rain. When they arrive at the Grooms estates I want it to storm, a pretty massive thing with thunder and lightening.

Random Encounters: I need to plan and set up a single random encounter for on the road. Something that will challenge between 3 and 6 fifth level characters. This will be used to highlights the dangers of travel in Beign, which is a wild frontier land. Bandits, robbers and creatures are all real dangers.

Vro: A Land of Religious Turmoil.

This Kingdom was once a Decadent land where anything was possible-any vice, any sin. As natural resources were used up, and as Decadent Lords and Ladies grew distant, and apathetic to the people the gap between the rich and the poor grew massively. As the Kingdoms economic and political clout dropped off things became worse, and more and more people despaired. A decade ago a group of Priests who followed a number of Gods fostered a religious revolution, and threw down the King and his court. In his place they instituted a theocracy that made Stalin's regime look like child's play.

The feeling I'm looking for is a soviet style collective, where people are encouraged to monitor each other, and turn in those who fail to meet the standards of the religious regime. A cross between the french revolution in it's fervor, and the television and movie soviets. Roaming bands of inquisitors and acolytes are especially common in the bigger cities, and on occasion through out the country side.

It's a depressing country, where the people eek out a living-but just barely. The Priests who fostered the revolution have become the very thing they fought against, finding comfort in the charms of power, and wealth, and women.

Once in Vro the PC's will be accosted at least once prior to reaching the destitute lords home by Acolytes or Inquisitors. If they avoid arrest they'll reach his estate, and from there he'll be polite, and entertain them for a day, even more if they're polite. If they're rude he'll have them evicted, forcibly if needed.

He'll be evasive with the PC's trying not to commit to any answers, stating that the dwarven lady and her entourage never arrived, and neither did the dowry. However it will be readily apparent that his situation in life has improved. Work crews are arriving and fixing his estates, he's obviously purchased several new things-clothes, horses, etc...

He also seems to have a new companion, one the servants will confirm arrived only in the last few days. A Priest, who seems quite interested in the PC's.

More later, work now.

Ideas:

Someone wants specifically to prevent the robber baron from gaining legitimacy. Someone with a disdain for the new money, or perhaps a convoluted plan to steal his fortunes.

The daughter is important to somebody. Obviously not for ransom or that'd be obvious by now. What's her value?

She's the one manipulating everything, or has some secret of her own. Only if you want to go with the whole twist ending thing. Scratch that... you could model the whole thing on The Big Lebowski.

And that's all I've got.

Some good ideas, I think some of it will definitely be incorporated into my game. Now to start some mapping and NPC design. The Pc's will travel from Port Hope to Arta, a city where religious repression has lead to the people building a variety of secret underground shelters to pursue their own style of worship. Still others have built these shelters for malignant purposes.  Dark purposes, secret purposes. I think that's where the final confrontation will take place, in one of these shelters, under the city.