[EVILNess]

(This quest works best if the PCs are new to an area and don't really know a whole lot about the residents of a town.)

One I did was have the players spot a Beholder in a town heading down an alley, the beholder looked "worried" and looked like it was searching for something. Make them roll a faux spot check if you want them to really notice it, and credit it to whoever has the highest spot skill in your group to make them feel good.

If they are bloodthirsty and quick to fight types and attack it they get a good rousing engagement. A challenging battle with a powerful foe, who drops no loot.

If they follow the Beholder to see why it is in town they can eventually corner it and find out that it is actually a "good" Beholder and he was searching for "INSERT MACGUFFIN HERE" and he noticed the PCs following him. He decided to stand his ground and make his case. After the introductions are done have the Beholder offer to hire the to find his missing MacGuffin.

For example, my Beholder was a fairly famous local Wizard who was fairly liked. I had him looking all over town for his missing adopted daughter. After a little poking around they found she was kidnapped by a splinter sect from the thieves guild for ransom to fund a coup on the current head of the Thieves guild. They saved the girl and made two powerful allies. The who had access to many powerful spells and items and was a good source of local information tied to the arcane, and the Thieves Guildmaster, who had access to well stocked fences and more subtle information sources.

It's a good solid adventure with good solid rewards, and what's great about it you can spice it up and make it a personal thing for your campaign.

For example, you can make the beholder be a liar, and he actually kidnapped the girl to sacrifice her to some dark god. By adding this one thing you can basically extend the adventure to encompass saving the little girl again and maybe even turn the beholder into a recurring villain instead of a friendly NPC. Maybe the Thieves Guild splinter faction was trying to save the little girl, and the Guildmaster was in on it and spread false information to discredit the kidnappers and get them killed by NPCs to rid the world of would be rivals.

Another good twist is that if they kill the beholder and he is a prominent member of the town is that would make them fugitives. They could be arrested for murder and tried and sent to prison, forcing them to escape or die. They could have bounties that follow them wherever they go making for many interesting encounters down the road with people seeking profit from their heads. This plot thread becomes doubly interesting if you have a paladin in the party, and could be a great way to teach PCs to look before they leap if that is an issue with your group.

I like modular stories like this since you can basically fit them in anyway you want. You just have to have a bit of imagination to change the little girl kidnapped by thieves to magical necklace stolen by evil cultists.