I need early game ideas!

[Brolof]

I'm going to be starting a campaign soon, with the party starting off investigating the disappearances of large amounts of grain and other crops from it's surrounding farms. I already got the main group of issue (a group of hired bandits), and a small side issue (an old mill infested with rats of varying sizes). I want one, maybe two extra side quest type of issues, but I'm having trouble coming up with what these could be. So, I'm looking for suggestions!

[Dave Justus]

It might be interesting to have one of them basically be fraud. The crops from one farm weren't stolen, but he reported they were and sold them in secret to avoid paying taxes. This would probably involve some out of combat skills, which might be a nice change.

[MerlinCross]

Few ideas, mileage may vary

- Introduce a Fastachee. It's CR 11 but given that and it's NG nature, it's not for combat. Maybe nerf it to have it be a young version just settling into it's role as Guardian/ward of the farms. It can impart knowledge to the team about the events of the field better and even become a patron of them in the area as it grows more powerful. Right now it just doesn't have the power or the knowledge to root out(Ha) the trouble makers so it needs some helpful humans.

- Flip side, if you want to take a more magical, less mundane reason/treats, there's a few farm land plant monsters to throw at the group. Either planted by the bandits to deal with investigators or provided by some darker force.

Blood Maize is pretty good choice. Have the team come across some Corn/Maize, debate about trying to ambush anyone that comes to steal it only for the plant to ambush THEM!

Jack o Lanterns are also prime ideas for Crop based Ambushers. They tend to be glass cannons(That explode on death too) so be careful about actually using them unless you want to score a kill or two.

- For NPCs besides the usual farmers and hunters, local doc/apothecary could be planted based. Herb Witch, Druid with Herblism, maybe Alchemist or Shaman.

- Final bit that is flavorful if maybe the most dangerous addition... Scarecrow. At CR 4 it'd be a tough fight early especially with two Will saves but having that in your back pocket can allow for any number of events and set ups.

[Brother Fen]

If set in Nirmathas, this could be a nice lead in to the Ironfang Invasion. The disappearance could be related to the encroaching Darkblight. The darkblight doesn't come into play until book five, but there's nothing stopping one from incorporating elements much earlier.

Darkblighted fey or plants are attacking farmers and destroying or corrupting crops.

See the Blighted Fey template in Bestiary 6. You can apply it to whatever fey you like.

[Brolof]

It's not set in any A.P, or even Golarion, and I already know where I'm gonna take the story. But thanks anyway Fen. I'm loving the ideas for the monsters Merlin, and I was thinking of incorporating a farmer who isn't exactly up to snuff, but I think the "just taking advantage of the wider issue" would work wonders. Thanks for the imput!

[Java Man]

The party could encounter a lynch mob getting ready to "take care of" the "witch" who is the cause of all the problems. Trying to talk down a crowd of angry, misguided, but ultimately not bad, farmers from murdering the weird old lady from down the lane might be a nice change of pace from encounters best solved with swords.

And heck, maybe she is an evil witch, but has nothing to do with the current issues, what then?

[Brother Fen]

There are stats for an Angry Mob troop in Rite Publishing's Monster Menagerie: Troops.

[tonyz]

I'm assuming fairly low-level here (below level 5). A couple of possible sidequests:

1) Farmer Brown's prize bull has broken loose and gone into a dense area of forest. Farmer Brown went after it and hasn't come back yet. Please go retrieve him and the bull, preferably both with positive hit points and not cursed by the local fey. (Oh, and the local woods? Aren't fey-haunted, they're undead-haunted. Or maybe something-else-haunted.) An advanced herd animal can be a nice CR3 encounter; rescuing Farmer Brown from the tree limb that fell on him is probably a CR1 encounter (strength check to get the tree limb off him); dealing with the whatever-it-is can be whatever you want.

2) The missing grain has led to some starving locals hunting and venturing deeper into the woods. The local dryad would like the local farmers and woodcutters to Go Away And Stop Bothering Her -- if the PCs won't do it, she might have to take action.

3) A flock of local birds that normally eats grain from the fields has been feeding on dead bodies instead of the missing grain... can you say "carrionstorm"?

[Kayerloth]

4) A local, who is one of the bandits, is diverting some of the grain and other crops to provide it to an orphanage. The head of the orphanage suspects something is up with the recent frequent donations (having heard of the missing grain) and doesn't want the donor (or the orphanage) to get in trouble. They hire the party to quietly investigate the matter or having learned the party is already hired to also report to them, ideally first.

5) The wounded Boar. The PCs hear rumors about, then a reported sighting of an infamous large wild Boar only it has apparently been injured. Maybe they could hunt it down both eliminating it as an ongoing local threat and it would feed a lot of mouths going hungry because of the missing crops.

6) A local woman approaches the PCs for help. The just passing storms have caused some local youths to lose control of their raft. The raft and several of the youths have become grounded on an island in a nearby river with rising waters threatening to flood the island. Normally the river is known to have several types of dangerous creatures to inhabit it. The rapid flowing muddy flood waters have driven those away to shelter but the PCs may or may not know this.

7) The PCs are approached by several local woman. Their kids (and at least one pet animal) are missing. Their last location is known. Tracks lead off towards an area of woods where some dangerous hallucinatory fungus is known by the locals to periodically grow.

8) Toll Troll Bridge. A villager returns prematurely from a trip heading towards the nearby town. Apparently a troll has taken up residence and is extorting a price to anyone trying to cross the bridge. The troll is actually a slightly smarter and younger ogre who convinced the local he was a troll by using a Wand of False Life to appear to heal super fast (damaging himself but only enough so as to use up only the temporary hit points). He will negotiate if pressed and his use of the wand is less than perfect. It was also borrowed from the stash of an Ogre Mage who might be looking for it. (But that is for later in their careers). The PCs can get help if needed from some of the locals to take on the 'troll'.

[Mark Hoover 330]

Don't involve either of the existing plot threads. Currently you've got some bandits, presumably hired to cause mischief by someone and some R.O.U.S.'s (Rodents of Unusual Size) being a nuisance in the old mill. What if both of these are a by-product of something... deeper?

A DUNGEON!

Yes that's right, hidden below the hinterlands is the lair of a group of kobolds. These creatures are using magic to dupe the bandits into getting loot for them. Looking at the core Bestiary you'll note that originally kobolds kept trained dire rats in their lairs, so some of them got out. What are they doing there?

Well, there's this BBEG, Sklarn the Dragoncanter, who is trying to resurrect an old dragon. Sklarn is only a kobold Adept 5/Warrior 2, a CR 4 threat to the PCs, riding around on his Mauler familiar and lobbing brutal Burning Hands spells, but in flavor he's a would-be hero who discovered the resting place of the bones of a dragon of legend.

Since then he's been on several campaigns... "crusades", to gather what he needs to return this "dead god" to life. A shrine with guards and a gauntlet of traps has been established in the rough-hewn caverns below. The kobolds use Dire Rats as draft animals, carving new tunnels and chambers in anticipation of their god's miraculous return. In accordance with draconic worship they've also begun to line the area around the bones with the beginnings of a new hoard for the ancient one to recline on.

You can have a couple entrances here there, either caves or the cellars of ruins or even through the taproots of ancient trees. You can also plant hints and clues - the rats have collars worth a few coins, the bandits have met a few times with "Klarness", a weird-talking evil Halfling (Sklarn using a hat of disguise maybe?), and of course there's all those old stories people remember about the cruel (insert Chromatic Dragon color appropriate to the local terrain here) dragon that used to haunt this area. They have a play and a festival every year to commemorate the dragon's defeat... and it's coming up soon which is why a crop shortage is such a bother!