General Adventure Hooks: From Mundane to Apocalyptic

Lasair has been designed to have a lot of layers to it. The continent is built in fairly well-defined regions, each with a distinct character, theme, and flavor. Each of those areas can contain any number of seeds for quests, adventures, or whole campaigns within them, depending on the goals of your campaign or the desires of your players. This article will detail some of that potential, giving you a starting point for adventures in a sort of "menu " format.

Standard Fantasy Fare

Fantasy settings, at least those designed for tabletop play, will often have a number of tropes that seemingly exist to give low-level characters something to do. These plots are fairly simple in nature, letting a new party cut its teeth, for new players to learn the system, or for a group to feel out a new setting. Lasair is no different in setting up the potential for some of these.

Bandits!

The City-States Region contains a lot of commerce, with overland shipping being a major part of that. Iron coming out of Aratosa, granite coming out of The Sink, or foodstuffs out of Fertile Lands. There will always be those that want to interrupt those shipments, whether the poor and hungry seeking food or valuables or merchants looking to disrupt competitors' business. Groups of characters could be hired by merchants to serve as guards, or to track down missing cargo. They could also be members of the Mercenary Guild, assigned to similar duty, or sent after a particularly troublesome bandit gang that has evaded capture.
These sorts of adventures can be ran as a simple one-shot, as the start of a basic introduction to a campaign set around merchants, or as the seed of a conspiracy-minded mystery.

Monsters!

Minotaurs ranging down out of the Horned Peaks. Strange plant creatures wandering out of the Shifting Jungle. Ratlings raiding the Titan Wall.
Whether a simple "something is attacking innocents", a subset of "somebody's taking our stuff" from above, or as the seed for a bigger mystery, working with a monster-based plot might be one of the most basic of all tabletop RPG stories. Want to get a game started off with an action beat? Throw a band of undead at the players! A monster-focused adventure hardly needs much introduction, but it's definitely something that easily works within the framework of the world.

The Guild

While there are many guilds within the City-States Region, when somebody mentions "The Guild", they are almost certainly referring to the Mercenary Guild . They are the largest single empoyer in the region, specifically defined in the Lasair Compact, and able to be commanded by any Mage or hired by any merchant. The Guild will host mostly common folk who are moderately trained in a weapon or two, but player characters are often the type that would excel in such duties. The guild is not only made up of soldiers, but also frequently has clerics from The Virtues serving at the Titan Wall or with squads across the City-States.
Setting a party of Guild soldiers, perhaps with an apprentice mage in nominal command, off on a mission of whatever the storyteller desires, is a simple and excellent way to kick off a game. And if the players are interested in a dedicated military campaign or even the challenge of logistics and command, setting a whole story within the bounds of the Guild is an excellent way to accomplish that.

Behind the Curtain

The nature of human society within Lasair creates some common threads weaving their way through the world. These conflicts are not generally visible to the average person but are happening frequently both in the corridors of power and in the wild places of the world.

School Rivalries

Outwardly, the Mages appear to be a unitary body. Common people know that anybody dressed in the robes showing status as a Mage is to be respected (and probably feared). Their status is spelled out in the Lasair Compact. Conflict between such elevated members of society is unheard of. Inwardly, the Mages behave almost entirely like any other body of powerful humans: they seek out power and status, have rivalries, and sometimes resort to conflict in service to their goals.
Sometimes such conflict grows from rivalry between Mage Schools. The seven shools have different teaching methods, philosophies, and approach to the magical arts. Simple pride dictates that members of different schools may come into (sometimes good-natured) conflict to prove the superiority of their school. This is generally worked out once a Mage leaves their apprenticeship, but Mages from different schools could still find themselves seeking out similar resources (and finding themselves unable to share), and rivalries from youth could also grow into grudges that last a lifetime.
A player group could find themselves as hired pawns of such a conflict, or perhaps one of the members of the party is themselves a Mage with a rival seeking to beat them to a prize. Regardless of the specifics, there are many ways to work competing Mages into a story - while the surrounding characters work to reach goals, help friends, or contain the damage.

Climbing the Ladder

Mages in general are an ambitious sort. While rivalries between schools will generally be good-natured, rivalry between Mages within the same school can sometimes be hostile and deadly. Some schools have a very hierarchal structure. Some Mages may be seeking a solitary object for their research or spells and have to beat another mage within the same school to it. It's not unheard of for a Mage to take on multiple apprentices and set them against each other.
In the same way that a school rivarly can be the foundation for a story, serving (or getting served by) a Mage seeking to beat a competitor can be just as interesting.

The First Law

Sorcerers - the Wurmborn - are possibly the richest source of adventure within the setting. One can provide an easy antagonist, a source of difficult ethical choices, an examination of society within Lasair, or a long story of exile and redemption. Wurmborn are hunted, and being on either side of that hunt can provide for an excising series of sessions as players track down a rogue sorceror or help one evade the Mages.

Patrons and Partners

Taking on a task from a wealthy individual, a shadowy organization, or an explorer in need - all of these are an excellent source of quests and campaigns. Lasair is full of opportunity for a party seeking fortune through service to others.

Masterpieces or Murder

Working for the wealthy and nobility within the cities of the City-States Region can be a quick way to make good coin. Many of those with deep pockets seek to collect art and other fine goods, and need strong arms to protect those during transport. Or they wish to purchase the same through a less direct form of acquisition - e.g. theft. In some cities, having a collection acquired through such methods can even add to the prestige of ownership.
In one city, with a strong theater tradition, the wealthy will often patronize the arts through funding theater productions. The stories told in the theaters are sometimes used to glorify the patrons - or to put down rivals. Stealing away the services of a well-known actor is considered fair play. Less fair - but not less common - is the murder of playwrights or actors who left a patron or who created a production that painted someone in a poor light. Investigating such crimes could lead to a fun urban story.

Exploration and Protection

Magical materials from The Glow; ancient artifacts from The Desolation; rich woods and art from the Korth'an Conclave. Seeking out these things takes bravery and strength and no lack of curiosity. There is no shortage of those wanting to make their fortune this way, and hiring on adventurers to help make that a possibility is fairly common.

World-Changing Wonders

The ancient history of Lasair is full of things that can be used to plant seeds for future adventures, to drop hints to the past, or - if you're up to it - break the world and reform it from the pieces. The parts of the world described here are fun to use as color or for classical deep dungeon adventures, but diving into them full-force will alter the world in some way.

The War Returns

The Dragonscourge left the world broken, two major races extinct or exiled, and millions or more dead. The war was apocalyptic, with magical energies slung across Lasair with no consideration made except for that of victory. The effects of that magic still linger to this day.
For whatever reason, Magic loves round numbers. Whether it has to do with it being so tied up into the intent of its wielders or if the passage of time is truly clicking over some giant cosmic clock, magical effects tend to naturally last for a distinct unit of time: an hour, a day, a year, a century... or a millenium.
The Dragonscourge ended nearly a thousand years ago. As such, many of the most powerful and durable spells from that era may be coming to an end. Spells that locked away dangerous beings - Dragons , undead, crazy Elves . Spells that locked away entire towns. Spells that held up dams in the mountains or made a volcano sleep.
If you can imagine any sort of long-lasting spell whose duration coming to a close would cause a disaster, which could create an exciting story for a group trying to stop it or limit its effects, it would fit very well in the game.

Rise of the Elements

Many places in the world have a strong Elemental presence. The Firelands in particular are known for there are many other smaller locuses of elemental concentration. The world as a whole is formed from the elemental maelstrom that existed before time and history, and which was initially given form by the Titans. The elemental chaos that exists within the world is constantly seeking weakness in the surface; finding it, it could burst forth leading to an invasion of elemental forces.
This could be something localized, such as angry fire elementals bursting down from The Shattered Peak to burn farmland in the Fertile Lands. Or it could be a world-changing event such as an enormous hurricane forming from the incusion of air and water elementals around the Tempest Reefs.

Titanic Deeps

The existence of the Giants is assumed by the few who know of them to be in the very ancient past. The fall of their creation is what enabled the Elves and Dragons to rise to dominance in the world. The eruption that created The Great Plateau covered their constructions in lava and ash.
But the Titans did not disappear entirely. Some of their number had been digging into the deeps of the world, creating vast caverns and vaults below the surface. While the elemental cataclysm that destroyed their world also affected many of these, there remained a small number of titans in existence. They continued their building, performing small acts of creation, and clearing some of the destruction wrought by the elemental incursion.
These giants of the deep can rarely be found directly. But the caverns created by them litter the world under the mountains, under the plateau, under the whole of the world. Arcane treasures beyond belief exist here, but so so obscene creatures left behind, whether through titanic experimentation or simple evolution. A powerful party could find themselves here by accident, through exploration, or through intent - should they ever discover clues that lead them to look here.