Continuing with this series, here are some more one paragraph adventuring hooks you can drop into an 1879 campaign (or use to get one started). If you missed part one, check it out here.
11. A steel mill in London that was destroyed in an explosion five years ago has recently been rebuilt. The explosion was believed to have been deliberate, with the saboteur getting trapped and killed in the resulting explosion. The ghosts of the foreman and workers have returned to the new mill, and refuse to allow any of the living laborers get to work, reacting violently if force is attempted. The local medium says banishing this many spirits would be a lengthy and expensive undertaking, but if the saboteur can be found and presented to the foreman, the spirits can likely be convinced to move on. Can the party solve this cold case?
12. A suspiciously large number of members of a noble family have undergone Looking Glass Fever and turning into snarks. The head of the household, who has not turned yet, has been openly racist against boojums in the past, and suspects someone has found a form of poison or spell that they are using to infect his family as retribution. Is such a thing even possible, and can the party figure out how and who is behind it?
13. A local orphanage has been reporting children going missing in the night over the last few weeks. Each disappearance has been seemingly at random, about a week or two apart. There have been no signs of forced entry or struggle, and the windows and doors have been locked and barred against outside entry. With each case, the child awoke just past midnight complaining of awful nightmares three nights prior to their disappearance. The exact details of the nightmares have been different, but they all involved small, disfigured humanoids with tattered, bat-like wings.
14. There’s a disturbance in a remote farming community, where reports say one farmer has had extremely bountiful yields in all his crops this past season, while those of his neighbors have withered and died in the ground. His neighbors claim that he’s made some sort of magical pact to drain the life from their harvests and feed it into his own. The farmer claims to have no knowledge as to why his crops have been so much more vibrant this season.
15. A sudden and violent storm hits while the party is on a train. When traveling around a large bend, they can see lightning strike the wooden bridge up ahead, collapsing part of it. It’s too close for the train to be able to stop fully on its own before the bridge. Best think fast to save those on board!
16. The party catches wind of a secret call for extra security at an upcoming Vaudeville performance. The police are on the trail of a smuggling ring and have evidence that details for the next exchange are going to be given out there, and they need people to attend incognito to look for any suspicious exchanges or dead drops. During a tap dancing routine, one of the players notices a member of the audience taking notes in time with the performance on what looks like Engine punch cards.
17. In a small, roadside Inn outside of Inverness, a woman wanders in battered and bloodied. She says she is the wife of a pig farmer, and that she and her husband were attacked when they were bringing in their latest batch of pigs to market. According to her claims, they were attacked by unicorns, but not ones like the animals described of legend; these were fierce with bloodied horns and matted fur, seemed to attack them with intelligence, and were apparently carnivorous, as they were after the pigs. She became separated from her husband when they fled, and she fears for his safety.
18. A pair of sisters have developed a new kip design for an airship, and hire on the party as crew to assist in testing it. While they are airborne, something goes wrong and the kip gets locked in the full on position, continually generating more hydrogen gas. The airship is steadily climbing, and theoretically will keep doing so into dangerous levels of altitude. Trying to troubleshoot the kip itself is hazardous because the acid is being pressure injected, so a false move could set off a dangerous stream. The party is going to have to figure out a safe way down, hopefully with the airship in tact.
19. A string of crimes have been occurring for the last few weeks on Sundays. They started out as small robberies, quick grabs for money from stores that are closed for the Sabbath, but have recently begun escalating in magnitude, until last week when a street cop was killed trying to stop the suspect. Witnesses to the crime claim the suspect looked exactly like the local priest, who was giving a sermon at the time. The priest has no knowledge of the crimes and will be grateful for assistance in clearing his name.
20. A pair of wealthy parents have put out a call for help with their young daughter. Starting a month ago, she started running a fever, though for the longest time did not seem to be negatively affected by it. She could still run and play and act normally, her temperature was just incredibly warm. Starting about a week ago, however, she’s simply ceased being thirsty, and actually becomes violently ill if she attempts to drink water or anything with water in it. Her appetite has also increased dramatically. She’s been examined by a doctor and her health otherwise does not seem to be affected.