* One of the players wakes up one morning to find a black mark on their hand. An old villain has died from the blade and has marked them. The players will need to discover what the marks means and confront the vengeful specter before it can kill them.

* Same as the hook above except that a rich elven noblewoman named Siesta Breezefeather has gotten the mark. She wants to hire the party to protect her. The enemy that has chosen her was a rival who sought her position in the elven court.

* The Backstabber has been stolen. For several years it had was in the collection of Wraith Calhoun, the leader of the town thieves guild. The dagger was stolen by Wraith’s younger brother, Sike, who intends to prove himself by assassinating a corrupt merchant who ripped off Wraith before fleeing town. Unfortunately, Sike does not know the dark history of the blade. Wraith hires the party to track down his brother and stop him before he accidentally uses the blade. However, when the players find Sike, he failed in his wayward mission and was subdued by the merchant, a ruthless halfling named Tulgnat, and his men. Tulngat plans to ransom Sike and then sell the dagger to the highest bidder. The players could offer to negotiate a trade or take the dagger and Sike back by force.

* One of the players observes the vengeful specter sneaking through the streets. If they follow it, they will find it is about to attack a young nobleman named Karleth. If the players save Karleth, the spectre will shriek and vanish leaving behind the Backstabber Blade. Seeing the weapon, Karleth will attempt to take the dagger from them because he recognizes it as a murder weapon. Several days before he used it to murder a young woman with whom he had been having an affair. He bought the blade in an odd antique shop and then tossed it away once he had committed the crime. If the players refuse to give over the weapon to Karleth, he will attempt to have them arrested and claim that they tried to rob him. The players will either have to talk fast, use connections in the town, or perhaps resort to force to make the truth come out.

* Same as the hook above except Odrick hires the party to retrieve the dagger once it finishes off Karleth. Odrick will explain that Karleth is a murderer and that the ghost of a murdered woman will be using it to exact vengeance. The challenge to this adventure will be to decide whether to let the ghost kill Karleth or find some other way to bring him to justice. In this scenario, he will be slightly drunk and stumbling home with a few friends when the vengeful spirit attacks. His friends will scream which will alert a town guard who happenS to walk right around the corner just after the murder. The guard will promptly arrest Karleth’s friends and confiscate the dagger. The players will have to figure out how to retrieve it.

* Odrick, or a detective, could hire the group to catch a serial killer. An assassin for hire named Vargas the Punisher has been advertising his services around town. He has been killing with the Backstabber Blade and has figured out how to use it without it causing himself too much grief. Clients must pay Sargas 200 gold, he then convinces them to close their eyes and focus on the person they want dead before stabbing the client in the heart thus tricking them into becoming vengeful spirits. Vargas the Punisher has a practically perfect record. He’s not much of an assassin but he’s actually really good at stealth and knows a bit of ritual magic. He likes to follow the vengeful specter, let it do the dirty work and then snatch the blade up when it finishes. If a spirit link is created that he didn’t intend, he destroys the new vengeful spirit with an elaborate binding trap he has created so that he can better control who the Backstabber kills. If cornered or seriously injured, Vargas may stab himself rather than get caught.