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Based just off of the words 'The Slave Catcher's Swords?'
1) The Slave Catcher has a pair of swords that are said to be magical, and the source of his uncanny skill at his trade, allowing him to track down and incapacitate fleeing slaves. It's all hype. He's just a really good tracker (ranger, favored enemy - slaves?) and has learned to strike for nonlethal damage with his blade, and / or coats them (and his arrows?) with a relatively weak (and therefore cheap) numbing toxin that does minor Dex damage and, most importantly, reduces movement rate, so that slaves attempting to flee him begin stumbling slower, and become easier for him to catch (all slasher movie like, with him advancing slowly but steadily, while they feel the strength going out of their legs and feel like they are running in slow motion, until the inevitable stumble and fall...). He's spread the rumor that his 'power' is all in the swords he carries, so that foes underestimate his own considerable skill, and has given a deadly surprise to those who attempted to jump him after stealing his 'special swords' or who make efforts to sunder or disarm them, as he carries back up weaponry, and is just as deadly with daggers, a bow, some random other sword, etc.
The PCs are beseeched (besought? besooken? whuteva) by villagers in the local area to help them find their missing relatives, who they believe were taken by the legendary Slave Catcher. Only he can tell where their loved ones have been sold off, and the party will find him unwilling to divulge his client list, and forced to fight him. Even after extracting the information, they then have to travel to wherever these villagers have been taken, or find a way to liberate them from either a camp, prior to being sold, or the homes / mines / etc. of their new owners, who will not be wildly enthusiastic about this novel new 'catch and release' concept the PCs are proposing.
2) The Slave Catcher has a pair of magical blades that require him to capture others and sell them into slavery. Perhaps they are intelligent, perhaps he gains some benefit from those he has scarred with the blades, so long as they remain alive, and the scar is not removed (and so he 'brands' the slaves he brings to market, burning them with the hilt of one of the blades (heated over a torch), in some relatively discrete place, and as long as they remain branded, they are down one hit point, and he has one temporary hit point). He's had a successful career, and thirty slaves currently live, bearing his brand, giving him thirty temporary hit points that restore at the beginning of each day. If he kills someone, he gets no such benefit, as the swords encourage (and reward) cruelty and prolonged suffering. If the person is allowed to go free, they may get the sort of healing treatment that will cause the scar to fade, and so, he benefits most reliably from selling them into slavery. He's not the first 'Slave Catcher,' although that fact is unknown to most, and he in fact was once a Paladin, who slew the first Slave Catcher, but fell under the influence of the swords, falling and eventually 're-training' as a Fighter or Ranger / Blackguard. Adjust the number of slaves currently alive and bearing his mark as desired. Perhaps he's got so many marked slaves currently linked to his blades that he is effectively unbeatable, requiring the PCs to infiltrate various slave markets, households, mines, etc. and get rid of brands to weaken him first (either by killing the marked slaves, or giving them 1 hit point of magical healing, to remove the scar). Perhaps one of the PCs has a clue to this weakness, in having been a marked slave in the past (or even starting the game with a mark, and permanantly down one hit point, only to have the brand fade away when he receives his first point of magical healing), and has spent months feeling occasional twinges of phantom pain as the Slave Catcher is struck by a weapon or spell, and the damage comes off of the hit points stolen from others (as the temporary hit point he has lost to the Slave Catcher is expended, he feels a faint ghostly echo of the pain the Slave Catcher has been spared). Perhaps 'random' magical healing won't suffice, and the healer has to be aware of and specifically touch the burn-mark while casting a cure spell of any level (which will heal damage normally, in addition to purging the scar), while a 'general' cure spell applied to somewhere else on the body, or an area effect channel energy, won't suffice to break the link or erase the scar.
Potential for infiltration of noble households, to sneak curing to marked slaves, gathering information from slave traders to find out where the slaves sold to him by the Slave Catcher were re-sold to in the first place, sneaking into work camps (mines, logging camps, building construction, city renovation teams, brothels, ships crews) of slaves to 'unmark' slaves, in preparation for fighting the 'unbeatable' Slave Catcher, who is hot on their tail, and has hired some mercenaries to harry them, as he has felt his 'invincibility' waning as they unmark slaves, and recognizes that they *must be stopped!* before they undo all of his hard work.
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3) New Exotic weapon (unrelated to the above two thoughts);
Slave Catcher's Sword - Light Melee Weapon, 5 gp, Dmg (S) 1d4, Dmg (M) 1d6, Critical x2, Range -, Weight 2 lbs, Type S, Special disarm, trip
A slave catcher's sword is about the size of a short sword, but in single edged and ends with an inward facing curve, similar to that of a sickle. On the dull side, a smaller curved hook also bends back in the direction of the holder. Because of these two curved points, the slave catcher's sword is excellent at snagging limbs, weapons or clothing, and the user receives a +2 bonus to disarm or trip attempts, and can drop the blade as a free action to avoid being tripped in return upon a failed trip attempt. The curves make the weapon useless as a piercing weapon, and it lacks the penetrating efficiency of a short sword (represented by it not having an improved critical threat range).
Because of it's relatively simple use, to hack, in melee combat, a non-proficient user who is proficient with all Martial Weapons only has a -2 penalty to use the weapon for basic melee attacks, although he suffers the full -4 non-proficiency penalty if he attempts to use it to disarm or trip a foe.
Local slave catchers have taken to carrying these blades, with the most skillful of them wielding them in pairs, knocking weapons from hands and dragging their intended captives to the ground, where they can be subdued and shipped off to market.
[Granted, a new Exotic Weapon isn't really useful for an adventure seed, more a random thought...]
4) The Swords of the Slave Catcher are a band of hoodlums called 'the Swords' who serve a fat slave-merchant known only as 'the Slave Catcher.' The Swords are former merchant-marines, who've been drubbed from their former posts for various improprieties, and worked as an impromptu press gang, before landing this more lucrative gig. The Slave Catcher is an enormous dark-skinned Garundi, whom most mistake for a pampered pushover, not noticing his callouses and scars, from a harsh life as a slave-gladiator who won his freedom after strangling a lion to death for the amusement of the crowd. He doesn't get his hands dirty as much these days, but is still a force to be reckoned with, and his 'Swords' help him round up new slave gladiators for his own personal underground fighting-ring. The PCs may end up on the wrong end of the 'Swords' and find themselves in the underground fighting ring, forced to organize a gladiatorial rebellion if they want any chance of getting out of the Slave Catcher's clutches.
The two slave catchers are very well written. Seeing a coiled whip is a little bit less than I would require a DC for (isn't it a little like "use eyes" check). So where to from there? How about if all that is easy but at the monastery the Polymorph fades and now a nasty monster is loose, like a giant snake depending on if you allow Size L to Size T polymorph.
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This should give you an Encounter Area to work with. Part of a Larger Town in which the Adventure Encounter can Take Place. Now it just needs to be mapped by someone with an idea on Sewers, and Streets.
Encounter Map
..A------------------------------------------Z
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Building....Location.......Type
Community Layout
20x30.......2P/4Q..........R
20x20.......3U/4V..........R
20x20.......4K/5L..........R
20x20.......7B/8C..........I
20x20.......9R/10S.........I
20x20.......9C/10D.........R
20x30.......11M/13N........C
20x20.......11U/12V........C
20x20.......12H/13I........I
20x20.......14I/15J........R
20x20.......14P/15Q........I
20x30.......16W/16X........I
20x20.......17Y/18Z........R
20x20.......25H/26I........C
20x40.......26J/24K........R (Exotic Shape: left "L")
20x20.......20K/21L........R
Sewers always have a grade downward to a gate or a pit, trenches get deepest near their end and are always deeper near tall buildings.
Sometimes there are shanty towns below and often there are useful rooms that are simply locked.
In general, whenever mapping, life revolves around kitchens and larders.