Inspired by Rob Donoghue's great "Getting into Trouble" tables for his quick Fritz Leiber-esque "Two Guys with Swords" game at http://walkingmind.evilhat.com/2010/12/14/two-guys-with-swords/ :
Where you Are Now
- On the roof of the tower
- A mountain pass, during a storm
- Busy marketplace, with suspicious figures in the shadows
- The duke's wine cellar
- Wilderness shrine to one of those unusual gods
- Bandit country
- Burning building
- Volcano, which is starting to rumble
- Edge of a dark lake, where ripples have disturbed the surface
- Backstreets of the city, surrounded by fog
What Brought You to This
- A series of poor life choices in the recent past, regarding who to trust
- A job went sideways
- The captain of the Guard didn't have a sense of humour
- How were you to know that the painting was a counterfeit?
- Wandered off the path, whilst drunk
- That wizard was quick to anger
- Blackmailed with an antidote to a slow poison
- A spell backfired, spectacularly
- That drunken boast may have been unwise
- Misunderstanding regarding the ownership of an idol
How It Is About To Get Worse
- Someone delved too greedily and too deep
- That ritual chanting probably isn't a good sign
- The creature has your scent
- Rising water/gas/lava
- That supposedly sure-fire spell you just cast didn't work as intended
- The people surrounding you are holding sharp objects
- The dead have risen. Again.
- The sun is about to set
- Those druids are rather touchy
- Huh. Aren't those things immune to swords?