Looking for Suggestions

[Solomoriah]

Tomorrow is Game Day, and I'm not ready.

Yeah, it happens. More often than I'd like to admit, actually.

I'll have a group of five player characters in the 5th to 8th level range. They just finished doing a favor (a substantial one) for a powerful wizard, and he has the power to put them about anywhere on the continent. It's likely they will ask to be transported to the court of Queen Stormraven of Alambar, who issued an invitation to them some time ago.

They already rescued her daughter, Princess Linden, so the typical kidnapped princess scenario is out of the question (I hate to repeat stories). All the adventures I've authored, I've run, and further I've done a few of the JN3 sub-adventures (nerfed a bit for their levels) so I can't really use that (and the later ones are just too tough to nerf believably).

I need something I can put together quickly, or a short module for characters of that level. Mostly, I need suggestions.

What sort of service might a Queen, and one who is a wizard to boot, ask of a group of stalwart adventurers? Or what might they accidentally get themselves into?

[Dimirag]

Maybe the royal messenger where sent to deliver an important note to someone of authority and hasn't returned yet, did something happen to him on the travel or on the place he was sent?

What was the message? Maybe its top secret so the characters will not know it...
Where was the messenger sent? A merchant's house where he was suppose to retrieve and important object? And the merchant was robbed at that time or some other object causes some trouble (like statues that ended up being gargoyles or golems)
Was he ambushed on the way to the place or on the way back?

[Metroknight]

Have the queen send the characters on a covert ops to retrieve/steal an item from the person responsible (or who she thinks is responsible) for the kidnapping of her daughter (revenge is sweet when you can combine it with blackmail). Set it up where the player characters don't receive the orders from the queen but someone else (deniability) so that if things go wrong the orders can not be traced back to her.

[Solomoriah]

Heh. She was kidnapped by a rival ruler, whom they defeated (after a very weird set of battles) and actually kidnapped. Said ruler (an evil princess) was given into the power of a different rival king... who married her to his son, so as to cement a claim to her kingdom.

Politics. Even in a game world, it makes strange bedfellows. Literally, in this case.

[Dreamakuma]

Have the Queen place a bounty on a rare fruit or rare(Deadly) game needs to be hunted down for a regal dinner to welcome the princess properly.

I did a scenario where an evil Countess had PC's kill treants to make a new throne.

Just some ideas.

[Solomoriah]

Thanks for the help, guys. I have to admit, I punted... the characters were transported to the wrong place by the wizard, which let me put them into a module I had available.

But I still have to face this situation eventually...

[Dreamakuma]

When it happens you can always pull a heel turn. Have the Princess kill the Queen and go all evil-er overlord.

[Maliki]

When it happens you can always pull a heel turn. Have the Princess kill the Queen and go all evil-er overlord.

Actually they never rescued the princess, they brought back a doppleganger who kills the queen and makes it look like the PCs were in on the plot.

[Solomoriah]

You guys are sick... I like that!

[Dimirag]

Not only that, some key members of the kingdom are slowly replaced by other dopplegangers, who can the characters trust from now on?