“ With a huge number of sacrificial victims, another realm long ago secretly bound a Prince of the land spirits, Iorstonn by name, thus ensuring the fertility, and improving the magical defences, of their realm. But binding that Prince to one spot has disrupted the weather and magical patterns (ley lines?) over half the continent. Things have become bad enough that a coalition has been formed to rectify the situation, once divinations have established the cause.
Your party is one of the teams assembled to do the rectification: find the binding object and steal it ('so that we can destroy it here in our realm, of course'...*) or destroy it over there. Presumably the Prince will be grateful to his rescuers and angry at the binders, but with a greater spirit like Iorstonn one can never be sure: such beings are 'tricksy'.
* Of course, the rulers of our realm might want to control Iorstonn for their own ends...”
“ L1 wizard spell
This spell must be cast for 31 consecutive days by one wizard to create a +1 sword,-2 to anyone else holding it(other than sword owner).No special ingredients or quality of blade, the only requirement on this part is it must be a short sword or longer and must be a true sword. The sword must draw blood from a living creature of at least 1-1 hit die every day and The blade is -1 until the 31st casting, when it becomes fully and permanently enchanted .Variants that enchant other weapons could be possible.”
“ A circus is in town and while parading down the main street the animals suddenly break free from the cages. After surviving and assisting during the breakout the PCs are hired to help with the investigation. Who did this and why?”