I'm DMing again. This time it's a long one shot with my DE friends, first time gaming in person with those guys in ages. Also my first time DMing for them.

After something of a dry spell, I'm short on ideas. I'm running a fifth level pathfinder game in a northern port city.

Notes on setting:
Power groups include wealthy landowners, merchant guilds, and organized crime. It is a trade city, so you can find shrines to all kinds of gods, but very little in the way of true religious devotion. There is also a central government, but a weak one presided over by a child and his regent. Law enforcement is minimal, but if you piss off the wrong groups you'll face retaliation. Short of that just about everything is legal. Also, "monstrous" humanoids are pretty common in town, as opposed to their usual role.

So given the whole pirate city thing I've got going... I need ideas. NPCs, plot hooks, adventure ideas... And I need 'em in time for my game on the 19th. I'm thinking they pull into town as outsiders, all on the same boat. I want to give them a smuggling job, have them marooned if I can manage it, and otherwise just give em plenty opportunity for the standard mischief and mayhem.

Thoughts?

Do you want to go for the whole "Christmas spirit" cheer and hope sort of thing?  Try this on for size.

It's a one-shot, right?  So the less set-up, the better.  Classic Traveller opening -- the PCs are a group of couriers hired to deliver a package.  They pull in to this port for the first time ever, paid passage on an otherwise non-descript merchant ship.  They have no idea what's in the package, just the instructions to deliver it to this city, to a small shrine in the religious quarter, final payment on safe delivery of the goods.

First, shortly before arrival in port, one or two shadier fellow passengers begin to display an unhealthy interest in the group's business and welfare.  Next, an ever-escalating series of attempts to steal the package from the group occur, resulting in armed conflict if necessary, but may be subtle confidence scams or cat-thievery.  Start out by making the PCs think that they're important in the scheme of things, but eventually it becomes plain that the package is the real focus of the adventure.

If the PCs are able to hang onto the package by wit, wiles, or sheer brute force, the adventure becomes like The Warriors, a tense race through a strange city to safely deliver the goods.  If the package gets stolen, the adventure becomes more like Pulp Fiction, and the group needs to navigate through the city's underworld to recover it.

What's really going on?  The package contains a religious icon of genuine spiritual significance to a deity that promotes peace and honesty.  The piddling little shrine that hopes to receive it will have a means to secure genuine prominence in an otherwise uncaring community.  With this artifact in place, their influence will likely form the cornerstone for cleaning up this dirty town.  Perhaps needless to say, there are plenty of interested parties who don't want the town cleaned up, and likely stand to suffer as a result:  Pirates, thieves, politicians, etc.  Meanwhile, the downtrodden of the city may find it a beacon of hope in an otherwise desperate life.  The players are unwittingly and unwillingly caught in the balance between the great forces that drive the city.

!i!

I like it. I probably won't use the religious icon bit specifically, but I like the opening etc, and you've given me some ideas. And I probably will use the relic bit next time I'm working on something like this.

I'd probably have the PCs part of the crew. Maybe loyal to the captain. First problem would probably be mutiny (including the seizure of the cargo). Captain dies, entrust party with the one really important package. I'm figuring a severed head (these things can be valuable in D&D, what with the speak with dead spell). Party might hide it on them or what have you, but I figure they'll want to escape or pass for part of the mutinous crew... otherwise get marooned.

If they get marooned I can put some shit on the island. I'm thinking something scary (since theyre the only people on an island in the middle of nowhere... can neither seek help nor run away). Beyond that no idea.

After that, deliver and/or recover package much as you described.

And beyond that I want some excuse for the party to go into an abandoned mine and fight something horrible.

Main problems I have are what the package is, what the head knows (if I go with that), and how to connect that with the whole "final fight" thingamajig (party likes fighting). I could also connect the island with the mine. Maaaybe. Both have the whole "something sinister in an isolated locale" vibe.

It's a marathon style game, so I need lots of material. The more the better.