Picture this. It’s D&D day. You wake up, get your morning routine going and you imagine the fun little fantasy adventure you and your friends are going to embark on later that night. The climactic battles, the captivating drama, the mysterious secrets to be unveiled. You then realize you’re the DM and have nothing prepped! Well have no fear, for here is a list of 26 hooks to inspire you for your upcoming adventures.  

Hooks about Children

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• A young child has grown up as an urchin. Everything changes when they discover they have magical abilities. The child begs the party to help them find a suitable master to teach them the arcane arts. However, the child is needlessly picky, rejecting any master for having too long a beard or for not owning enough pointy hats.
  
• Mind reading has always been a gift for a young mischievous rogue. But they begin causing far more chaos than planned amongst a city’s upper class as they spread the nobles’ secrets. The rogue has now come to the party to help fix the situation, especially since one of the secrets was about the king’s real parents.
  
• A young child has been kidnapped into the feywild. Their parents plead with the party to go and rescue them. When the party arrives, they find the child with a hag! As the party tries to take the child home, they find the child does not wish to leave as they are having far too much fun. If the party does manage to bring the child home, the child is magically aged into an adult, a complication the parents are unsure of what to do with.
  
• In a small hamlet on the frontier a baby has been born. Sharp fangs, pallid skin, and red eyes feature on the babe, and now the parents stand accused of committing something horrible. They beg the party to help them figure out what happened to their child and to stop the witchhunt the hamlet has targeted them with.
  
• In the foothills is a farmer who served in a recent war. Another war is about to begin, and they are distraught with the idea of their only child going off to war. They beg the party to help them convince the military recruiters to take them rather than their child.
  
• Theft has been on the rise in a metropolitan city. The crimes are centered in one district and the officials hire the party to investigate. What the party finds is a thieves’ guild run entirely by orphaned children! Their next target is a city official…the person responsible for their situation. 

Hooks about Gods

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• The great angel from a town’s patron deity has fallen into a deep slumber. Unable to figure out what could possibly make their guardian fall asleep, the town asks the party to find out how to awaken their protector. If the party doesn’t, the threat of gnoll raiders might spell the town’s doom.
  
• In a quaint halfling hamlet, one of its residents accidentally performed a miracle! Now the townsfolk treat them as the chosen for a god and refuse to leave them alone. The halfling asks the party to help escort them out of the village so they can live the quiet life they once had.
  
• The party hears a rumor about an old windmill out in the prairie. The rumor says that when the fan of the mill spins fast enough an underground chamber is revealed. Inside is the treasure left behind by a cleric to the spider god. Unfortunately, when the party gains access to the chamber they find out none of the treasure was left behind. Instead, the cleric is still there and is upset with the breach in privacy.
  
• The stench of rotting meat is fuming from the sewer grates. City officials hire the party to go down there and clear out whatever it may be. As they explore, the party finds dead bodies engraved with odd religious symbols on their foreheads and around their necks. Delving further, they find a cult of the undead. They have a plan of divine conquest, not of the city above, but of something darker below.
  
• A lizardfolk has been chosen by a strange new god as its paladin. This paladin is now raiding island villages and sinking imperial ships with their tribe. As the party digs for clues on this deity, they find out that the strange new god is a trick made by an imperial officer.
  
• An archbishop of a good aligned deity has been acting strange lately. As the party uncovers information, they discover that a devil has been mind controlling the archbishop. As the party plans to defeat the devil, they find out that something far darker is under the temple. The devil plans to keep it sealed. 

Hooks about Nature

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• A town well known for its roots to an ancient druidic order is afraid they won’t have enough crops by the time winter comes. They hire the party to recover an idol hidden deep in a ruin that was owned by the druids. The town’s mayor hopes that the idol’s magical properties can encourage the crops to grow fast enough before a food shortage arrives.
  
• Deep in the forest a bear has become awakened! It is now an intelligent creature and can speak. The bear finds the party and begs for help as lumberjacks from a nearby city are destroying his forest. The bear prefers a peaceful resolution but will not shy away from violence if other options are ignored.
  
• Tiny flecks of snow drift down upon a quaint town in the forest. The problem is it’s the middle of summer! The village is perplexed by the situation and fear the cold may bear bad news for their crops. As the party is investigating a cause for this weather phenomenon, they find the only lead is a strange man who wandered through town a few days ago. The party follows his tracks, but finds him dead in the road with a cult symbol carved into his forehead. Hopefully the bloody footprints will lead to answers.
  
• While the party is sleeping out in the wilderness a cat decides to take a nap on the belly of one of the party members. The cat’s collar has a bell that rings while the cat is moving and sounds like wind chimes. Engraved on the lip of the bell is the phrase: “Ring me to become what you adore.” The cat’s face always looks annoyed. 

Hooks about Royalty

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• The party runs into a strange woman and her bodyguard. As they converse, the party learns she is a princess who is running from her noble duties. The king’s knights are after her and she needs help hiding from her own family. Things become more complicated as the bodyguard is secretly one of the king’s knights and begs the party to help bring the princess home.
  
• An old adventurer is on their deathbed. The whole city is lining up to see them one last time to thank them for the great deeds they did and forever changing the world for good. When the party comes to say their farewells, the old adventurer whispers to them, “I left one last thing unfinished. On the mantle above the fireplace is a letter. Send the queen my regards.”
  
• Sickness is commonplace, however, the baby of wealthy nobles is proving to be particularly incurable. The nobles ask the party for help and they discover that it is no ordinary sickness but rather the influence of something otherworldly. 

Hooks about Colossal Creatures

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• A dragon has been spotted above a settlement on the frontier. The dragon is looking for its missing fang but the settlers view its presence as a threat. The mayor asks the party to slay the dragon and bring back its head. When the party confronts the dragon they are surprised by it being awfully kind and just wanting its canine tooth returned into its empty gum. The fang in question is in the possession of the mayor of the town.
  
• The tallest construct ever built has been inert for centuries. It stands a mile tall and has the physique of an ancient warrior. Since it has been inactive, a group of gnomes have made a city on the inside of the warrior. Everything gets upended as the construct reawakens and is hell bent on destroying another nearby city.

Hooks about Strange Entities

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• A poor old woman has been cursed by a wandering witch. Now the old woman is haunted by devilish shadows that bite and slash at her. Perhaps the curse can be broken by the witch who brought this upon her in the first place. But how will the party find her?
  
• An archaeologist has finally cracked the code to an ancient language! They hire the party to escort them to a ruin deep under a mountain. When they arrive at the throne room, the archaeologist makes a horrifying discovery about the nature of the universe. It is so horrifying that they drop dead! Left in the researcher’s arms is the journal that can help the party crack the language if they dare to learn.
  
• Found in a decrepit graveyard, the party finds a talking head. It is detached from its body and is quite rude, but it still requests the party return it to its body. It promises a great sum of gold as a reward. Coincidentally, a headless warrior has been seen terrorizing nearby villages. Would returning the head to neck cause more or less carnage?
  
• In the depths of an ancient mine a group of dwarves have struck upon a deposit of adamantine. Only problem is a group of duergar have found the vein as well. Strangely the duergar act almost like zombies and have mushrooms growing from their heads. The dwarves promise to pay the party in adamantine bars if they can find a way to take control of the duergar and lead them elsewhere.
  
• A plague has struck a hamlet! The locals all either blame a dark entity cursing their village or a local apothecary shop for being witches. Hysteria is boiling over and the town leaders ask the party to help in any way they can. As the players deal with unrestrained locals and investigate, they find the plague was merely from a river polluted by a strange amount of animal carcasses upstream from the hamlet. Now who put the carcasses there…? 

Closing Thoughts

With your brain cogs cranking from these hooks, your next session will be a blast! Even if you don’t follow them verbatim, the inspiration from them will help you cook up another session to remember with your friends.