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So last week, half of my group didn't show up so we decided to start a new (4th Level) game. So pulling the first idea out of my *ahem*, I tell them they are on their way back to their home town, an elven forest city. But as they approach they see their home in ruins. After a brief ambush by a drow patrol, they inspect the city to find it not only destroyed but it seems to have happened decades, if not centuries, ago. They followed the trail of the drow back to a cave, were ambushed by an ettercap (random encounter) and are about to set forth into the Darklands.
Now, all of this was me flying by the seat of my pants. What I need help with is where to go next and an explanation for the state of their home town.
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I'd be tempted to play it as the machinations of outsiders or gods. Perhaps they saw a huge catastrophe approaching, and suspended both the party and the drow patrol in time for decades or centuries while pestilence and war ravaged the lands. Perhaps they did it out of sheer capriciousness, perhaps they did it because the fates foretell great deeds by the PCs. Whatever the case, weave in a little evidence of their meddling, and leave the players to discover why.
Here's a nice one, that allows everything to be undone as far as lost family goes.
Have them have accidently stepped into a parallel dimension that's ahead of them in the time line. Before they find out this has happened, have them find their own long dead skeletons, complete with the equipment they are currently wearing. Literally exactly the same things they have on them, but centuries old.
The drow are in the same boat, and they have to find a way to get back home and warn their home town (and the drow hometown) of what happened here.
Now you've got a good plot line to open the story, some non-standard allies in the drow, built in tension as the elves and drow have to work together to defeat some outside force, and a whole campaign about stopping ragnarok. :)