Which adventure hook should I use?

[Buttmonkey]

Recently, my players almost started a race war between humans/demihumans and large numbers of refugee orcs in the free city of Rotter. The party's barbarian started a bar fight with an orc that spilled into the streets and ultimately resulted in the deaths of many humans/demihumans, orcs, and city guardsmen. The bar (the Filthy Unicorn -- Evil Dick, proprietor) was destroyed. The party was subsequently contacted by an underground conclave of dwarves, some of whom want the party to lead the city's dwarves to exterminate the orc refugees, while others want to avoid pointless bloodshed.

While that is all simmering, I thought it would be a good time to run Seskis's A Lighter Shade of Ale, a short module from Crusader magazine. The plot [SPOILERS!]: some nasty types are running a pub that serves red and green ale. Each ale bestows a special effect (one heightens the senses and I can't remember what the other one does). Those bennies come at a price -- the red ale is made with dwarven blood and the green ale is made with elven blood. In addition, anyone who drinks five (or more) pints of the stuff contracts anemia (with lots of blood-loss hilarity the next time they get hit in combat). The basement of the bar is a trap and villain-filled series of rooms and corridors with the blood draining room in a back corner. With Rotter's demihuman and orc populations at each other's throats, it seemed a ripe environment for the brewmaster to snatch a few unsuspecting dwarves and elves off the street to kick his ale up a notch, so the module is on my mind.

However, the module does not have any adventure hooks, so I need to come up with a way to get the party into the basement. Hence, the poll. As general background, the party will be aware dwarves and elves have gone missing, but conventional wisdom blames the orcs. Some poll options are pretty generic and some are more specific. For example, Evil Dick is now Crippled Dick and trying to reopen his bar. I had initially planned to have him resent the PCs for starting the fight that destroyed his business. But that seems less fun than having Crippled Dick be an orc-hater who instead wants to guilt the party into helping him rebuild.

[Lurker]

I only voted for 2 of them, but I would use more of them as background/rumors that feed into their investigation.

Also, I do like the idea of evil/cripple Dick not being mad at the party but trying to get them to help him out in some way. However, I'd hold that card to use in the future. But, that is just me.

[maximus]

I'm in for 3. How can you go wrong with Crippled Dick...?

[Ancalagon]

The complaining Crippled Dick sounds good since it brings the PCs back to a prominent NPC for interaction.

[Tadhg]

Guild hires the party to investigate.

Crippled Dick 2nd.

[Treebore]

Anemia. Vampires are always good.

[Captain_K]

As a brewer, I think you got to get the guild involved... personally, since this is a fantasy game.. Dwarves are amazing, nearly magical makers of weapons and armor, metal work and gem work also.. would they not be equivalently skilled in making their second (or is it first) favorite past time BREWING BEER or most likely lagers (cave aged don't you know). So, draw the connection, keep the magic flowing, seems highly probable that a brewer's guild with a secret dwarven lager could easily do magical things, odd things to non-dwarven drinkers, and for sure cause a shake up in Crooked Dick's business... "I must have that secret formula!!!" Is crooked dick anything like plankton in spongebob???

If the dwarven brewer were kidnapped and forced to do the brewing, you really can blend many of your hooks all into one!

[Buttmonkey]

It turned out to be a moot point. Before I could even drop in the hooks, the party up and decided to pursue a hook they ignored months ago out of nowhere. I ended up improvising the whole session as the party left town to go after the metal skeletons north of the mountains that chased the orc refugees to Rotter. I would have gotten away with it if it weren't for those meddling players!

[Lurker]

... I would have gotten away with it if it weren't for those meddling players!

That sounds like an annoying swashbuckler I know that decided to convince a party to hurry to chase down a lead about another member's sister being kidnaped and sold into slavery ...

Look at it this way, now you have a hook or two pre baited and ready for the next time they decide to go off the rails

[Buttmonkey]

Next game session is tonight. I've got no idea what the party is going to do. Well, some idea, but they could lash out in any of a bunch of different directions. Last session, they turned a random encounter with a hill giant into a suicidal assault on the hill giant's lair that they somehow survived. It should have been a TPK. Instead, they collected a crap ton of loot (the C&C treasure tables always seem to turn out incredibly generous when we roll the treasure at the table -- platinum troll knuckle sets, etc.). They didn't even make it to the metal skeletons. This session, they may want to go after another hill giant lair they scouted months ago, go after the metal skeletons, go back to the ape dungeon, investigate the missing elves and dwarves, or start the extermination of Rotter's orcs. Or they might stumble into something else. I'm thinking about throwing a black dragon at them if they venture outside the city. I also have some villains I've been waiting to unleash for 9 months or so, but never seem to have the right opportunity. Ugh. There are way too many options to prep for, so it's back to improvisation for me tonight.

[Captain_K]

After touring the Guinness factory the other day, I was once again struck by the nested crafts associated with beer export; coopers, bottle makers, teamsters, shipping, not to mention clean water, hop growers, and barley maltsters and the secret magic ingredient of the yeast strain... so, you could make a totally beer related magic intermeshed adventure like in the old Fog Horn Leg Horn episode with the chicken hawk where each key branch needs something from the adventurers to solve the riddle and keep the beer brewing.. add in your dwarven brewer for the setting.. could be excellent indeed.