The fact that the setting is Golarion may not be particularly relevant, but since it is Golarion nonetheless, I'm posting in this section...
So, I have this campaign that started last summer, but was interrupted after the very first session; now we're resuming it, but I don't remember anymore one thing I had planned, and now it haunts me.
The situation is as such: the PCs are in Sothis (Osirion), and have still to meet with one another, except two of them, who are brothers and travel together.
The plan is that all of them end up in the same expedition to some osirian excavation site; two of the PCs will join that particular expedition for their own reasons, but I have have a problem with the brothers, because they are looking for a particular artifact and should be put on a trail where joining that expedition goes towards such goal, but I don't want the dull scenario where "oh, that artifact is exactly at the excavation site where this particular expedition is going", if you get my point.
It's odd because, before we interrupted the game, I had clear plans on how to put the group together without forcing events in a so stupid way, but I can't remember what it all was and am unable to think of anything else.
Help...?
Have one of the professors leading the expedition be rumored to have knowledge of the artifact they're seeking. They need to join the expedition in the hopes of befriending him/her so that the NPC will be willing to share the information. If things go well (perhaps they save the expedition from certain ruin, or even directly save the life of the npc) the professor will agree to help them find it.
That could lead to more adventures. Perhaps the land the artifact is rumored to be in is protected territory, or is in contested territory. Things like excavations are going to need some political clout behind them to not draw too much attention from the wrong people/creatures. The professor can get that, or at least help to put the PC's in a position to get it for themselves. They have to help him first though.
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What the poster above said, with the added twist that an oracle/prediction told the 2 brothers that joining this expedition would lead them to finding the artifact. They might go in thinking that the artifact is indeed at the excavation site, only to discover after doing their hero job that the gratitude of the people they saved (like the aforementioned professor) is what will actually help them make progress toward their goal.
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In Dungeon 59 there is an adventure by Chris Perkins called "Seeking Bloodsilver" which may really help here.
The PCs (and groups of NPCs) are searching for an awesome artifact (like in your Sothis campaign) but instead of being in the dungeon (or pyramid or whatever), it's actually in the Shadow Plane version of that dungeon.
So if you like,... Your PCs could be in the pyramid (or wherever) looking for that artifact, only to learn that it is in the Shadow Plane version of the pyramid, (or perhaps a demi-plane only accessible from the pyramid, ala Isle of the Ape from Castle Greyhawk by Gygax), making the intro to your campaign essentually two dungeon crawls, the first in a dungeon in Sothis and the second in a dungeon in "Shadow" Sothis.