Some Broader Factions

This is less about specific adventure hooks than about factions that might be involved in events in this area. This is by no means an exhaustive list - just some of the groups, or types of groups, that influence things.

1. Githyanki have been plaguing the area, raiding trade routes, towns, mines, castles, etc. - generally, I imagine, avoiding any full scale fights, but generally making things difficult. They have brought a good number of monsters in their wake, some allied, some just taking advantage of the disorder the Githyanki have spread. We've dealt with some of them already - they might now be weakened... This doesn't change the other monsters that might be taking advantage of their presence, and might create new conflicts, especially if people start looking around for their lair.

2. We've run into Drow a couple times in our recent adventures - there might well be more of them. They might have been allied with the Githyanki - or rivals to the Githyanki - or both... and might become more prominant now. They are also likely to have other allies - giants or such... I think they would have a slightly different attitude toward things - Githyanki seem to behave mostly as pirates, raiders - DRow seem a little more likely to be looking at larger political ambitions, conquest, or at least political ambitions against their underdark rivals... (It might also be more likely for their to be Drow NPC wandering around - which can create some challenges, since not all Drow might be automatically evil.)

3. The Drow and Githyanki I imagine are both more inland - probably coming from the mountains. I think there might be other factions on the coast. I think this kind of coast would be quite rife with pirates - smugglers, raiders, of every kind. I think there could be a couple major factions there - whose feuding could involve characters at various points. (Somewhere along the line, if I ever get any energy at all, I really want to play a seaborne adventure - boats and harbors and islands and haunted lighthouses and all the rest, and pirates and castaways and the works....)

4. Politics - I think the main political turmoil is in the valley in the northern hills, which is a small kingdom. The king is missing - his brother is ruling in his place - and is fighting with his barons and their people over the taxes to save the king (or enrich the prince, depending on who you listen to.) The results are pure Robin Hood - honest men outlawed and all the rest... This can serve as background - a reason for some of the breakdown of security, maybe the source of a lot of the armed soldiers running around (outlaws, exiles, etc.) - as well as a place for mercenaries to find jobs. It could also blow up into warfare, or pull characters in for intrigues, rescues, and so on.

5. Finally - I think all these things have drawn a good number of adventurers looking to get in on the action. We've run across a few of these already, and can keep running into them in various contexts. These can come in all types - honest heroes - opportunists - outright villains, either looking for their own advantage of allying with evil forces (drow or githyanki or pirates or whatever)... Yeomen unfairly outlawed or simple thugs... I hope over time we can start working up encounters among these people - with recurring characters....

Our gang has met Hashtag and Splat, half orc barbarian and halfling thief, who will probably turn up again... others as well - we can see how they can fit into all this.