20 Tavern Events Mundane to Marvelous

So your players have found themselves in a tavern yet again. The only plans they have are casually bickering with the locals, drinking a few cold beers, and finding a place to rest their head. This time, though, you've got a trick up your sleeve! The table below contains small, simple events that can lead to a short rise with a quick fizzle, or, to an adventure all of their own. Make your typical tavern into a bustling hub of potential adventure hooks!

d20 Event
1 A beer or food delivery.
2 A tasting event (local wine, beer).
3 A local brewer visits to sell the barkeep on stocking their beer. The brewer is actually a villain who poisoned the barkeep with the tasting, but wanted to make a public spectacle of it by getting all of the patrons to watch.
4 An adventurer bursts through the entrance bruised, battered, and out of breath; he brought his trouble with him!
5 A delivery never came.
6 A mysterious person is moving slowly about the place, investigating nooks and crannies meticulously, and they find something: a preserved or skeletal body under the floorboards; a collection of maps in a small compartment under one of the tables; a chest behind one of the walls. When he pries open the board, the chest crashes to the floor, opening and dumping a huge pile of gold. Let the brawl ensue...
7 The locals rented out the tavern to hold a private event. The event is a masquerade, and the crowd is pretty rough-and-tumble. However, there is a rumor that a noble's daughter will attend, assuming no one will know who she is. Once the party discovers who she is, she goes missing. Her father, who is a powerful nobleman, shows up with his guards to collect the girl, but realize she has been kidnapped. Everyone is a suspect, even the adventurers!
8 The entire tavern is surprised as a powerful explosive sound booms, followed by the shattering of all the front windows and the door blowing off its hinges.
9 An oddly-dressed man with foreign mannerisms enters the tavern and begins to preach about a foreign god. Via magical charm, a surprising number of people begin to listen. He is kicked out, and as he is, he threatens to return with the wrath of his god. But the charmed folks follow him, like charmed sheep...
10 The previous owner of the tavern shows up as a Revenant, prepared to take his property back.
11 The barkeep overhears an adventurer telling a tale that doesn't sit well with him (involves something sinister like human sacrifice, or hurting a child, etc) and elects to become the tavern's justice system. Will the adventurers help him pulverize this patron, or hold him back?
12 A barmaid did not show up for work today, and she told the barkeep that one of their regular patrons has been stalking her outside of the bar. That patron has also not been seen today. The barkeep feels guilty for not listening and wants the heroes to go and find out what happened.
13 There is a foul odor coming from the cellar...
14 A group of brawlers from another pub in town show up drunk looking for a good old rival bar fight.
15 A man enters the bar frantic, claiming his wife is a shape-changer or a witch of some sort that has been abusing him, but that he escaped her grasp. The rough-neck crowd laughs at him and tells him to "be a man" and "handle his wife". What do the players do about this potential monster? Or, for that matter, this blatant misogyny?
16 The owner hires an interior decorator to help polish the place up, but after the decorator is finished, the place looks very dark and morbid. Mysteriously enough, since the decorator came to town, there have been a number of strange occurrences in the town: some corpses have risen from the graveyard; a large murder of crows appeared in town and began to terrorize the townsfolk with small mischief; a carriage came to town driven by a spectral and skeletal horse who wouldn't let anyone get near it, before disappearing.
17 Construction is occurring in the bar, and only a small part of it is open. As the characters approach, the building is leveled. With a DC 15 perception check, the adventurers will notice the construction crew fleeing stealthily away from the establishment.
18 Someone has been renting a room upstairs for quite some time. He pays well, and asks not to be disturbed. However, he has not left the room in days. The innkeeper asks the players to sneak in and see what they are up to.
19 A local racketeering gang comes in demanding protection money from the innkeeper. None of the locals will make a move against them to defend the barkeep and staff. What about the players?
20 A priest who was exiled from a nearby major city for committing evil acts enters the bar. He puts his own "WANTED" poster up on the wall with a nail, as if to say, "If anyone wants a piece of me, here I am." He walks over to the bar and orders a drink. If the players defeat and subdue him, he claims to know the location of an ancient dragon's treasure horde.