The conflict between the wealthy relative newcomers who took over the neighborhood and the descendants of the original settlers they largely displaced is not an especially acrimonious or violent one; it's mostly one of subtle influence and gradual change. Still, it is a conflict, and there are ways the PCs can become embroiled in it. The more active side in the conflict is the side of the less affluent holdouts who want to try to restore the neighborhood to something closer to what it once was, so that's the side the PCs are probably most likely to get involved with. (The rich inhabitants have a more passive rôle in the conflict, mostly just resisting their opponents' reform attempts, so there's less for the PCs to do there—although they may ask politically involved PCs to help pass laws to protect their power.) Socially adept PCs may be enlisted to directly help convince the wealthy residents to agree to concessions, but even PCs without skill or interest in social maneuvering may be able to help out in other ways—perhaps a holdout thinks they can sway one of the rich residents to their side if they can get them something they want that's difficult to get a hold of, and they approach the PCs to acquire it for them.
Example:Rinika Jare is the housekeeper to the wealthy tycoon Ururu Sadar—and a member of the Planters. She's been working on discreetly persuading her mistress to support some of the Planters' goals, and thinks she would have won her over by now were it not for the influence of an equally wealthy friend of Sadar's, Mycrom Halitat, who's not so receptive to reform and dissuades Sadar from acting on her sympathies. Jare asks the PCs to get Halitat out of the way so she can work her influence on her mistress unimpeded. This could mean killing him and making it look like an accident, if the PCs are the murderous sorts, but it definitely doesn't have to. It could also mean distracting him or arranging him to be called away to deal with something out of town so he's not around to undo Jare's work, or it could even more somehow swaying him to the Planters' side.
Wealthy patrons are something a lot of adventurers covet or value, and a good source of jobs... and of course East Island is a wealthy area where such patrons could potentially be found. It's certainly not the only wealthy neighborhood of Lüm—it's matched or surpassed in that regard by the Glades, Northshore, and Otter Lake, among others—but of all such upper-class neighborhoods of the city, East Island is perhaps the one with the reputation, on average, for the most eccentric inhabitants. Some of the rich residents of East Island may have some very peculiar and particular desires... and be able to pay well for their fulfillment.
Example: East Islander heiress Filiona Masquez has a son, Urón, who wants to become an adventurers. She approaches the PCs to take him along on some safe adventuring job to give him a taste for the life and hopefully get it out of his system. She's heard of an abandoned temple complex east of Lüm that's recently been cleaned out by other adventurers but might still have some treasure and a few mostly harmless constructs left in it; maybe the PCs could take him there and give him a nice bit of adventuring experience without real danger? Unfortunately, as they're exploring the temple, Urón finds a secret door overlooked by previous explorers that leads into an area that still has a lot of traps and monsters in it; now the PCs have to deal with these threats while keeping their patron's son alive and healthy...
As its name implies, East Island is located at the very eastern edge of Lüm—which means, given Lüm's lack of suburbs due to the surrounding marsh, it's directly adjacent to the unsettled and undeveloped area beyond the city borders. It's not common for monsters and dangers from the marsh to wander into the neighborhood... but it does happen, and PCs may be asked to deal with them, or may end up dealing with them just because they happen to be there when it happens.
Example: A powerful fey has entered East Island from the marsh outside, and has been abducting people on the streets and carrying them away to some unknown location... and of course the PCs are asked to deal with it. Killing the fey won't bring the captured people back; can the PCs force it to tell them what it did with them and how they can be rescued? Or maybe they can discover what the fey wants and find a way to resolve the situation peacefully...
The canals of East Island bring many benefits to the neighborhood. Beyond the æsthetic appeal, they keep the land between the canals dry and provide (relatively) clean water for irrigation and other uses. But they aren't entirely without downsides. The canals are connected to the river [which at some point I still really have to come up with a name for, dagnabbit!], and sometimes aquatic creatures may make their way into the neighborhood through the canals and cause trouble. Or strange creatures and phenomena may pop up within the canals themselves, perhaps due to summonings] gone wrong, perhaps due to misguided attempts at sabotage, or perhaps from other causes.
Example: Slime-spitting carnivorousgiantsalamanders have been emerging from a certain section of the canals... which is a new phenomenon; nothing of the sort has been seen before. If the PCs investigate, the source of the salamanders turns out to be deep in the bottom of the canal. A few years ago, a thief robbed some of the mansions in East Island and, spotted and pursued by the guard, dumped their loot in a canal with the intent of returning for it later—but never got the chance. Unfortunately, among the stolen valuables was a magicaljewel that held trapped within a powerful otherplanar entity. Its owner had kept the gem wrapped in an enchantedcloth that muted the entity's power—but in the waters of the canal the cloth rotted enough that the entity was able to partly escape and influence its environment. It's been sending the salamanders out in the hopes that someone would find the gem, unwrap it, and therefore release the entity entirely. In order to deal with the situation, the PCs are going to have to enter the canal and confront the entity there where even partly trapped in the gem it still has considerable power. Or will they fall for the entity's ploy and free it and make the situation worse?
