So for as long as I've been DMing I've always had this one NPC that the characters have a chance to interact with.
Basically through a series of unlikely rolls (Nat 1 on a d100 followed by a second nat 1 on a d100) the players can encounter an old travelling fortune teller. Old and blind she offers to tell a party member their fortune for a unreasonable sum of gold 10 - 10000gp depending on the party level. Now if they take the route that makes sense and tell her to take a hike, the encounter ends. However if they agree to have their fortune told they get a pull from the DnD 3.5 Deck of many things. They don't really know this, I just pull a card for them, say the meaning cryptically and some time in the next month it will happen. For example, if the get a small keep and a large sum of gold, some time in the next month a long lost relative might have passed and left his wealth to the PC. Now last session a PC rolled two 1/100s and then paid the 100g cost to have his fortune told. He pulled true wish on the fortune telling of his future. I worded it "Your future is your own, you are the master of your own path. If you wished it even the inevitability of death could be avoided. So, what do you wish for your future?" And...
He wished for Glory above all things. What the hell am I supposed to do with that. I've had people slowly starting to recognize him more and more. In this world he's a full Orc and Orcs are essentially mongolian horse lords from Genghis Khan's time.