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They are in a forest right? How about a NE Druid, who is emulating an apex predator, and he hunts humans and peasants and has the personality of Hannibal Lector? Perhaps he is the lord forlorn keep. Maybe you could foreshadow vampire, or were wolf, but have him actually be a shape-shifting druid.
have you seen the french move Brotherhood of the Wolf?
Just some ideas. I hope this helps
I suppose that would depend on the type of adventures you and your players enjoy. I could help a bit more if you give a bit more description on what you and your players generally do. Where is their main base of operations? Are they explorers, hack-n-slashers, guardians, relic-acquirers? Do the players enjoy the role-playing aspect more or is it all about the killing? How far are you planning to take the characters, both geographically and in terms of levels?
One quick thought, do you have Pathfinder Module #3, the Hook Mountain Massacre? That book has the most info about Varisia and can give you several ideas for the adventures you are playing.
As far as an overarching plot is concerned, Chorak's Tomb upriver from Ravenmoor is a sealed off city by the inhabitants, presumed to be giants of some kind. A nice invasion story could work.
The Storval Deep is rumored to contain relics of a lost civilization. Perhaps a water-breathing race has been developing there, and are planning to flood the lowlands, or at least a crazy contingent are.
Sanos forest seems to be the center of Gnome activity, with a rumored portal to the First World, the place where fey come from. While gnomes are mostly nice, not all fey are...
Something "simpler" may just be a trade consortium out of one of the major cities trying to get a monopoly on the trade routes in the area, bribing various monster tribes into attacking certain caravan's, while leaving others alone. An investigation may be in order.
Lycanthropy seems to be spreading throughout the area. Is something going on in Wolf's Ear?
If you are looking for something really big, take inspiration from any of the first three adventure paths. Another Rise of a Runelord?
I'm just throwing ideas at the wall of your mind to see if anything sticks, but like I said earlier, details would give me a much better idea of what thoughts I should be throwing. :)
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Option one (more traditional action);
Ember Lake suggests a lake affected by volcanism. Perhaps the Malgorian Mountains are the residence of a red dragon, or clan of fire giants, or wicked efreeti, banished from the City of Brass for some perfidy. Whomever, is attempting to conquer the local hobgoblin tribes of the mountains, and force them to serve as their armies, with the eventual intent of forming their own little city-state, in the middle of otherwise fractured Varisia. Earlier encounters could be with goblinoids (goblins and bugbears) who've escaped the purges going on up in the mountains (as the leader is picky and only wants hobgoblin slave-armies, considering the other two races unreliable). Eventually, the local villages could start encountering the hobgoblins, demanding tribute in the name of 'Lord Pyre' or 'Master Ember' or whomever, and burning towns that don't cooperate. As the party schools the hobgoblin 'tax collectors,' they are noted as being a problem, and may have to face a more significant retaliation, such as an assassination attempt by bugbear rogue-assassins, or a squad of 'elite' fire giants sent to punish them. Dirtier tricks might include villages who *did* pay the protection money being attacked by giant boulder bombardment, and the villagers being told it's 'because of those adventurers,' turning the frightened local people against the adventurers. As levels accrue, larger foes, like the giants, and eventually perhaps half-dragon wyverns, could be sent against the party, while the big boss himself (herself?) remains off-screen, unwilling to risk revealing / endangering themself, particularly if the big boss isn't nearly as 'big' as the hype suggests. (Perhaps there is no ancient red dragon, only a lonely efeeta, who has made an unlikely alliance with a young red dragon, using their her illusions and his blood to create half-dragon flunkies and pretend to be much more powerful than they really are.) Or, if this game is headed all the way to double digit levels, 'Lord Ember' might be a very real and very powerful red dragon, with an efreeti advisor, bound azer working the forges to outfit his fire giant and hobgoblin 'mamelukes,' and a smattering of red-scaled kobolds scurrying about underfoot, handling the light work. I've used this set-up as a basic 'adventure path' before with some success.
Adventure 2 - armies of strangely branded and expertly equipped hobgoblins are on the march from the sinister new 'Ashen Empire.' Threat to all local communities, the party must repel multiple invasions, and strike out at an encampment, where they discover that they are being equipped with genie-made weapons from a mysterious source. [Hobgoblin branded ‘mamelukes,’ spiked chain users with reach spearmen behind, attempting to pin those felled by their front lines?]
Adventure 3 - the party must infiltrate the Blackforges, where an Efreeti oversees Azer smiths, who provide armor and weapons for the armies of the Ashen Overlord, in the hopes of weakening the armies backbone. The armies supply of ‘genie-crafted’ weapons will be ended if the party succeeds. [Azer ‘knights’ on fire lizard mounts? Advanced Efreeti lord? Elementals.]
Adventure 4 - city-based intrigue. Towns have fallen to the armies of the Ashen Overlord, but his 'ambassadors' have appeared in nearby cities to sue for peace. The party must prove that they are only stalling an organized response, allowing his forces to entrench in the lands they've already secured, and that assassins are currently working to kill any local leaders / influential sorts who would most effectively mobilize against his advance. Some of the assassins prove to be surprisingly competent Kobold Sorcerers, Bards and Rogues, of mid to high level, who operate from a secret enclave within the city, using magical items of disguise to infiltrate human society. (like a Hat of Disguise / Alter Self, but with only one appearance pre-set, which can be used later by the party to sneak into enemy positions?) ‘Ambassadors’ are all humans, captured from overrun towns leaderships and charmed to the hilt. They are kept in line by not only magic, but the threat that family members and indeed, their entire communities, may be slain if they do not cooperate. [Kobold Bards, Sorcerers, Rogues, Assassins, perhaps some combination of the above.]
Adventure 5 - the Ashen Overlord sends his fire giant shock troops into open war, revealing his branded hobgoblin 'mameluke' slave-soldiers (that have mostly been exhausted anyway) to have been the equivalent of 'peasant levies.' Their leader will be a Half-Dragon Fire Giant, and their magical support will consist of powerful Kobold Adepts and Sorcerers (who literally ride on their backs, like 'tailgunners').
Adventure 6 - his armies routed in previous Adventures, the Ashen Overlord himself, a massively powerful Red Dragon, descends in a rage to raze the lands he failed to conquer. If the kingdoms will not bow before him, they will burn beneath him! The group may repel him at the beginning, but will have to travel to his lair to defeat him finally, along with his most powerful ‘servant,’ the Ghostfather Magus, an 18th level half-dragon kobold sorcerer!
I could throw the volcanic area the dragon is calling his 'Ashen Empire' in the mountains just west of Nirmathas and Lastwall, and use them as the threatened kingdoms. Bloodsworn Vale area?
Ghostfather Magus is the ‘brains’ of the operation. Old Smoke himself has grown tired of his ‘empire of ash’ and attacked prematurely against his ‘advisors’ counsel, because he longs to pillage and conquer, not just sit on a throne and ‘rule.’ When the fire giants, kobolds and Ghostfather Magus fall, he’ll put on a big show of outrage, but he secretly desires this direct conflict, not ‘leading from the rear.’ Old Smoke has become a victim of his own success, and is eager to see his own Empire fall… The ‘worship’ of his followers went to his head at first and he mistook their dreams for his own, but now he wants to go back to being a dragon, not merely a king.
Option two (leads into underdark espionage);
Inspired by the appearance on the map of a fort called 'Viperwall.' That, to me, suggests a fort perhaps erected in ancient times as a barrier against surface raids by the Serpentfolk (and perhaps wrested from the Serpentfolk, after they fell into barbarism, being a former stronghold of theirs, establishing a 'beachhead' on the surface world, resulting in the fort having alien design motifs and unsettling inscriptions and perhaps a hidden surprise or three...). This adventure 'path' could deal with strange doings around the fort, and after some red herrings and some missions for suspicious allies, the party could discover that the Serpentfolk aren't quite as 'gone' as everyone had hoped, and have resurfaced, in disguise, and begun replacing key officials in the area with disguised 'half-serpentfolk / half-human' infiltrators. An intrigue-ridden / forbidden cults / ancient-evil-reborn sort of situation results, with the party unsure of who they can trust, and perhaps even finding themselves in alliances-of-convenience with questionable sorts, such as a bloatmage representative from Kaer Maga, who fear the serpentfolk attempting to literally drain the secrets of his power from his flesh, or a half-serpentfolk quisling who is sick of being bossed around by the fullbloods, who use the half-breeds as disposable flunkies, and turns to the party to help overthrow her 'bosses.'
Some other subterranean race, perhaps Derro, needs to be used as the 'cover' for the serpentfolk uprising, having been manipulated into boiling up and causing the various levels of unrest and upheaval that the Serpentfolk need to work their campaign of assassination and replacement. If only those pesky adventurers didn't get in the way!
A clever party might even find a way to get the Derro clued in to how they've been manipulated, and while an alliance with the dangerous little psychopaths is out of the question, they could at least make the blighters as much of a danger to their Serpentfolk 'masters' as they are to the local human population.
Meanwhile, not every local human can be relied upon, as a combination of serpentfolk sorcery, drugs and flat-out deception has led to the rise of a covert cult of servitors, unaware that they are worshipping the forces behind the local disappearances and acts of mayhem (caused by the derro, with covert serpentfolk assistance) and 'ill omens.' Eventually the party discovers the secret chambers within Viperwall in which the cult has been hiding, and a fullblood Serpentfolk Sorcerer has been running things, and is left to attempt to clean up the remaining half-breeds, with the looming possibility that no matter how thorough they are, a few unrevealed 'sleeper' half-breeds still lurk among the keeps soldiers and staff... The ending should have the feel of John Carpenter's 'The Thing,' where the two characters eye each other uneasily, neither sure if the other is who he says he is.
Varisia? A harrower would be awesome, either as a friend, an enemy, or a little of both.