DMing a group of players whose sandboxy mission is to, "take down," the PF Society Lodge in Magnimar within a year in game time.
Not burn it down, TAKE it down. Cause it to fall into ill-repute, collapse as a local institution, no longer welcomed in the city, its reputation smeared (oh, did I mention all the PC's are from Korvosa?) The task has been assigned to them, and they have been told that "just" killing the Heidmarch's will not do, as anyone else could just pick up where they left off.
No, the downfall must be something deliciously, maliciously, orchestrated by hook or crook and be semi-permanent.
It's sandboxy in that they have to figure out and then execute the methodology of the collapse. So far they have failed the interview process to become probationary members, so that avenue of causing it to "fall from within" has failed, but hey, they are only 2nd level right now... they still have 11 months and two weeks to figure it out.
I have quite a few side-actions and potential at different thresholds to make connections both high and low to open doors for them to plan out schemes (whatever they may be.)
I've also changed enough nuances about Magnimar's various locations/adventure hooks/NPC personalities to ensure them having the setting book or looking anything up online does not give them reveals they can meta.
They've recently taken over the Crow Piling (I changed the layout that was in Shattered Star) as their base of operations.
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Ruin their reputation and get them un-welcomed from the city, seems the obvious route to take.
Options to consider;
1) Magnimar loves it's monuments. Arrange some rumors that the PF Society has uncovered secret clues to a buried treasure within / under each of the monuments, so that opportunistic pillagers out for the mythical treasure and / or the rumored 'reward' from the local PF lodge end up defacing said monuments.
2) Magnimar loves it's empyreal mystery cults. Arrange for a prominent PF lodge member to speak ill of these 'lesser made-up local gods' or compare them to dead gods or long-forgotten Osirioni animal-headed gods or Thassilonian gods that nobody remembers the names of anymore, or for PF lodge members (or at least, disguised PCs identifying as such...) to plunder a sacred place to one or more of these 'fake nobody gods,' and, if possible, plant the plundered loot to be found in the lodge itself, linking them to the crime.
3) Magnimar loves it's ancient heroes and their legacies. Spread around a fake PF leaflet declaiming one of those beloved heroes by 'proving' that they didn't do whatever legendary thing they did, and muddying up their name. Alternately, arrange for any famous lodge member who is descended from said heroes, and 'has a famous name,' to die on a lodge-sponsored mission in such a way that it appears that the lodge ignored obvious dangers or sent them in unprepared for / unwarned of the dangers.
4) Get ahead of any counter stories (PF peeps are pretty clever!) by spreading scurrilous gossip that the lodge is closing up or shrinking in local importance, because of a new lodge opening up in Korvosa that is going to be the regional hub for new expeditions. Suggest that a bunch of Korvosan Pathfinders are in town finalizing the shuttering of the Magnimar lodge, and that they aim to pillage what they can from the old lodge on the way out. (So there's a built in narrative for why there are Korvosans in town, and them being up to their necks in whatever is going on with the lodge.)
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Had to run out, had one more idea...
5) Arrange for some prominent lodge-sponsored expedition to be associated with some calamity befalling the city, like a bunch of Shoanti undead disturbed by their exploration of some burial mounds (also bringing some racial tensions up to muddy the waters), or a plague of disease, or a powerful curse that afflicts random Magnimarans (spread by the PCs, obviously) and, rumor has it, stems from the PF society not leaving well enough alone and poking things best left sleeping. If you've got some spare gold and a craftsman willing to burn it, create a few cursed Wayfinders, that spread contagion or cause the bearer to always misunderstand things in the most sinister and conspiratorial way, to foster further distrust.