#inspired by a post I saw once on Pinterest about a set of bear pun–themed ttrpg plot ideas

[strixcattus]

D&D plot idea:

While travelling, the PCs find themselves passing through territories controlled by a league of clans or city-states or similar small, organized civilization. The city-states all band together under a united identity for matters of dealing with larger nations, shared enemies, and inter-state policy (though that last one is dependent on them cooperating enough to enforce it), but between them there are constant rivalries and petty squabbles which occasionally snowball into greater conflicts.

One of those inter-state policies, a particularly important one outlined in the league's most fundamental legal documents, lies in ownership of magic items—if a state creates a magical item, it belongs to that state, and if the league as a whole is in a cooperative, enforcing mood, theft of a state's magic items is forbidden.

The PCs end up taking advantage of one state's hospitality, and during their stay end up either advertently or inadvertently listening in on a meeting of the state's leadership.

Evidently a sacred weapon of the state has been stolen by their rivals. The weapon in question is the Claws of the Grizzly, a set of magical gauntlets formed by the forelimbs of a brown bear. When worn, they provide respectable bonuses to Strength and Constitution, as well as a 2d6 attack with either hand.

I made this item in roughly half an hour. Please point out anything silly.

Usually something only given out to respected warriors in battle, but now it's in their rivals' hands and they can't safely send a cohort to retrieve it—someone in the other state has certainly already attuned to it, and against the mundane weapons that are all the state has left, it's too risky to attempt anything small-scale. At worst, it might spiral into war, and everyone knows the rival state is more powerful.

Technically, the league as a whole should resolve this conflict on its own, as per its fundamental legal code, but in practice it can rarely get along, and the rival state holds a lot of sway due to its size and strength. There may be no way to get the gauntlets back... until they remember the PCs.

What better way for the PCs to repay the hospitality they've been shown than by heading into rival territory—as an unknown, seemingly neutral party—and having them steal back the gauntlets and return them to their rightful hands?

Or, in other words, the PCs need to defend the city-state's constitutional right to bear arms.