Adventure Seed: Wild Salamander Chase.

Blame this. Kinda.

Wild Salamander Chase – Google Docs

Wild Salamander Chase

The most powerful mages in the animal kingdom are the ones that thrive in two environments. When you say that, most people think ‘birds:’ and it’s true, many birds are powerful magi.  But consider the humble turtle.  It is [amphibious], so it lives in the water and the land; in fact, the turtle’s shell gives it a special symbolic connection with Earth.  The turtle merges Earth and Water; the albatross, Earth and Air.  The flying fish is likewise the guardian of the interface of Air and Water.

But what of Fire? What are the animals that speak for THAT element?

…And there is the adventuring party’s assignment, in a nutshell: work out what animals partake of the elements of Fire and each of the other three Elements, confirm that those species have natural mages, and report back to the suitably cryptic Wise One that gave out this assignment in the first place.  Or come back and admit failure.  There’s no shame in not being able to handle such a difficult task, after all.

Whether or not there are any actual Guardians of Fire in a particular game world is up to the GM, of course.  As is whether the aforementioned Wise One knows whether there are or not, either.  It might be entertaining to make the entire thing a wild goose chase, but that’s a really good way to get an entire table of players infuriated at you – and not in a good way.  On the other hand, actually coming with a ‘right’ answer when nobody expects them to is a time-honored tradition among players.  And on the gripping hand, being sent on an ‘impossible’ quest like this would make excellent cover for a party that’s actually just going out to spy on the Wise One’s enemies…