Negotiator Needed
Pinned to The notice board
A new but slightly smudged parchment reads:
Negotiator Needed.
Amidst the trouble brewing between the coastal cities, the leaders have agreed to peace talks before anything escalates.
However, they have agreed on the condition the negotiator be Leyla Kirthis, due to her work forming the treaty with the Storm Breakers.
We are looking for a capable third-party group to find and bring Kirthis back safely. They must have a good standing reputation in at least two of the coastal cities to be considered.
For the full completion of this task, the group will be rewarded no less than 5000 gold
Overseer Tau at the Council Hall will have more details.
Ways to approach
A seemingly straightforward quest, but with much larger ramifications. Even before putting this poster on the board, you can have tensions rising along the coastal cities and rumors of increased pirate attacks even though nobody believes they're pirates. It's entirely possible the party have been knowingly or unknowingly dragged into these very antics and garnered a (hopefully positive) reputation that way!
This is also one of the few posters I've done that requires an established reputation or the part, and to make it harder the party has to be liked in two cities (out of how many is up to you and your world)! If they only have good standing in one area, they can prove to another city their good intentions, but they'll have to be quick; this stalemate won't last forever!
As for the adventure of actually finding Leyla Kirthis, your party may be required to help solve her current negotiations in order for her to be brought away, something much smaller in scale and can be aided by the party’s intervention (diplomatic, investigative, or perhaps something more aggressive). If you would like to increase the difficulty then it would be easy to introduce a mysterious group looking to sabotage this quest in the hopes of stoking the flames of war.
Possible Repercussions
Who knows what travelling along the coasts will turn into if the party opt not to take this mission? Perhaps another crew tried and succeeded, in which case, there's now a crew that just got 5000 gold richer, or perhaps nobody succeeded due to sabotage from somebody pulling the strings of war, which would be an excellent tie-in to the Shrine Defaced & Idol Stolen quest poster. In this case, have tensions escalate, including the beginnings of war; supply chain disruptions, mysterious conflicts, and spy outposts, all before war is officially declared.
