Adventure Hooks

From Full Metal Alchemist d20

Adventure Hooks are the ideas that start an adventure for the characters. They get the players intrigued, introduce them to the premise of the adventure, and pull the characters in. This page is full of ideas for you, the GM, to start an adventure-- your own adventure hooks.

Non-Canon Hooks

These are adventure ideas original to the FMA d20 system.

• Silent Spring - A spring of valuable but deadly Red Water has broken out on the side of a mountain. Even more troubling than the question of what to do with it is the question of what it comes from ...
• Someone in Amestris (the government, a prominent civilian Alchemist, a doctor) has heard of people from the land of Chin, across the eastern desert, who use alchemy very differently. Your group is asked to find an emissary from Chin or to go there yourselves to learn about this alchemy.
• The Strongarm - A local bureaucrat is a virtual lord over a town. The police are in his pocket, the criminals check with him first, and the people don't stick out their necks. He has the town literally in his iron grip ... and that of his automailed henchmen.
• A trade road through the Brigs Mts. has been cut off by a landslide, and a local man is worried-- he sent his wife and children over the pass to visit her parents just hours before!
• They Know Not What They Do - A villain (disbanded military man, crazy alchemist, bitter Ishbalan) is performing soul alchemy that traps the spirit in stones in his laboratory. He is luring people who won't be missed --vagrants, merchants, and travellers-- to his lab and turning them into a zombie army. The party encounters this in any number of ways, and has to stop him ... while leaving the bodies of his army intact so that the innocent victims can be restored.

Encounter ideas

These aren't full adventures, but might fit into other adventures to add intrigue or flavor.

Canon Hooks

These are adventure ideas drawn out of the anime. They formed the basis of episodes or sidestories or were implied by the series, so they might work for an adventure with your own characters.

Note: Since these are drawn from canon, there are spoilers here. You have been warned.

• Nothing Gold Can Stay - An old mining town, nearly derelict since its mine dried up, has become prosperous again. The government suspects a rogue alchemist of transmuting gold, and the party is sent to investigate.
• People with strange powers are plaguing one of the major cities in Amestris. More troubling than the truth of the people's strange powers are the hints that the people were once in the military...
• Ours is not to Question Why - Your group is part of a task force of State Alchemists and other experts sent to deal with a group of (Ishbalan) insurgents before their terrorism sparks an actual conflict. Your actions must be secret, silent, and efficient, no matter what you see or hear. (high level)
• While passing through a town, you hear rumors that the town is haunted each month on the full moon by the recently deceased. From the sounds of the rumors, though, you think that soul transmutation might be to blame. You have three days before the full moon, so the time is ripe.