Dark medieval city needs ideas

[Mythmere]

Once my party finishes up in the dungeon they're exploring, they will head to the nearest city for R&R and to buy nicer weapons, etc.

The way I've decided to handle city adventuring this time around is to present a series of "scenarios" from a list. I'll just pick them as appropriate or possibly roll for them. THe flavor I'm trying to impart is European middle ages, with lots of squalor. Pretty dark, almost Warhammer.

So far, I've got on my list rescuing someone from an alley robbery and an encounter with lepers (that's probably just RP and background flavor). What other sorts of things might I have on my list of city encounters and events? Those who have used Warhammer as a campaign world particularly...

[TheDungeonDelver]

wh**es and pimps, drug dealers ("Psst! Black lotus! Stygian - the best! I would sell haager to a slayer such as you?"), street fakirs, roving gangs of halfling thieves posing as street urchins and fighting as 4-hit-die assassins, beggars, a grate at the end of an alleyway where tenants dump offal, garbage and nightsoil that leads to an otyugh lair, were-rats in human form (skaven! ), wights and ghouls roaming the huge cemetary in the center of the city, doomsaying "clerics" offering dark premonitions to passing characters, imps and quasits on unspeakable errands for their masters, an at-best lawful-evil gendarme who'll extort "tolls" out of any well-to-do looking passersby, gigantic tavern brawls that spill out in to the street and involve anyone foolish enough to get too close, a magic-user riding madly down the street on horseback all the while throwing spells at random ( ), ghosts of murderers gliding silently through pitch-black alleyways on moonless nights, the assassin's guild doing their dirty work, corrupt aldermen paying off guilds of black magicians and thieves to be left alone for another season...

Hope at least some of this is helpful.

[Thoth Amon]

grave robbers, clerics converting the characters the old skool way, ie a club to the head, the beautiful tavern wench who i actually a follower of some dark god...

[PapersAndPaychecks]

All the above are good.

Also:- Smugglers. Press gangs (or military recruiters). Bounties for rat's tails. A hue and cry. A travelling circus ("by Thor! the animals are escaping!") Pit-fighting (animals or gladiators). A ring which sends human beings into slavery (purchased by vampires, perhaps?) Wererats.

Slightly longer idea from a dark fantasy I ran a decade or so back:- The biomancer. (NPC class, variant necromancer but actually brings bodies back to life; think Dr Frankenstein here.) Biomancer's buying bits and pieces of people to try to make a flesh golem-like thing. He thinks his suppliers are getting these fresh body bits from recently-dug graves... illegal, but nobody will be harmed as long as nobody knows. In practice, his suppliers are finding it easier to waylay people in alleyways and mug them. To keep the bodies fresher, the mugged people are carried away alive to a cellar somewhere until they can be packed with ice immediately after their execution.

Packed with ice? Well, the mugging gang have hired a local wizard. He comes and casts wall of ice for them at ten o'clock every morning. They tip him some gold and he goes about his business.

This wizard has started to get curious. He (very ineptly) tries to make contact with the criminal underworld to hire a thief of some kind to find out what's going on with these people who want a wall of ice every morning. Unfortunately, our unworldly wizard fails to make contact with the thieves' guild; the people he actually finds are the PCs...

[Mythmere]

Thank you, guys - these are all great. The only one I'm going to stay away from is the biomancer. I'm dragging this group away from 3e, and so I'm avoiding any 1800's anachronism themes.

Thanks again - great stuff!