In the middle of nowhere, followers of nature religions meet for a great festival. Also, the new druid for that region of the world is going to be 'elected'. Not all of the 4 contestants are initiates, however...
One of the contestants is a defiler, as has come into the knowledge of the archdruid, who is supervising the combats. He doesn't know which of the four, though.
A short word on defiling: a defiler is a magic-user, who draws his powers from the forces of nature. Thus, the more potent the spell he uses, the greater the effects on his surrounding nature are (leaves turning brown, twigs falling off, ... ). Naturally, druids and defilers don't get along very well. However, if there's no druid to a region, a defiler could carry out his experiments to a threatening degree.
Also, note that the contestants will try to use this situation to gain advantage over the candidate they're most afraid of, by setting rumours that will point to that candidate being the defiler.
Moreover, the initiates will not be very cooperative, claiming that they need all their powers for the final contest that's going to come up once the defiler is found.
With my group, it was very easy hooking them onto this, since one of the characters managed to upset a coven of witches, that was attending the festival. They put a curse on him (also, there was a time limit), which none of the other people at the festival could lift but one of the druids or the arch-druid himself.
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If it is known that one of them is a defiler, have all cast but a simple spell. So easy. 'Cast a spell to prove your magic ability, so that you may continue with the contest.'
Mystery solved. 2/5
1/5
I think that the congregation of the different nature religions for a great festival of nature has more potential than hunting down a defiler mage hidden in their midsts. See Echo's comment on the easy solution.
It would be more interesting to know why the festival has come into being, what occurs, why the people attend, and so forth.
1/5
Possibly a defiler does not have to drain nature - although he would do it as his preferred source of energy, he could also (at least for minor to moderate spells) rely on 'conventional' energy sources. This would prevent Echo's solution being used as the defiler would just refrain from draining nature for the simple spell.
It has potential, but a bit more work is needed to make it actually workable. 2/5
A festival of druidic rites and initiation rituals, either old-school or new-take, perhaps with this basic concept but with all the juicy and necessary details, would make a fine sub indeed actually!
I'll be waiting on that one, Muro.