Much of the appeal of the Glades to its wealthy residents is the amount of the area that remains mostly untouched forest; their opulent manors are nestled in an expanse of natural beauty. However, they and their servants rarely venture into that forest, enjoying knowing that it's there but having little interest in exploring it. That means that off the roads and manors, much of the Glades remains unexplored, and there may be secrets hidden among the trees, including hidden treasures and dangers.
Example: Recently, undeadskeletons have started appearing on a certain road section, and the residents of the Glades want someone to find out where they're coming from and put a stop to them. If the PCs track the skeletons back to their source, they find an ancient crypt deep in the forest... and there are thing starting to stir there far more dangerous than the skeletons that have emerged so far. What's awakening the dead from the crypt, and can the PCs figure out how to return them to quiescence?
Another part of the appeal of the Glades is the privacy its residents have, with their estates set well apart from each other so they don't have to deal with neighbors if they don't want to. This can have its down side, though, because it means that if trouble arises and there's no way of communicating with the outside and asking for help the residents are on their own. Under the wrong circumstances, a luxurious manor can effectively turn into a perilous dungeon, albeit one with very comfortable furniture.
Example: The PCs are present at a party thrown by one of the Glades' rich residents, Marcourt Carlequil. (Depending on the PCs' skills and social standing, they may be there as guests, as servants, as entertainment, or as bodyguards for a paranoid partygoer.) For the amusement and edification of her guests, Carlequil has invited an eccentric professor of æalogy from the university, Aarnur Godswill, to regale the gathering with an account of his unorthodox theories that have attracted the derision of his colleagues. Something goes wrong in one of his demonstrations, however, and Carlequil Manor is somehow overlaid with another plane. Now reality within the manor is changing in strange ways, and the exits don't seem to go anywhere, so there's no way out. Can the PCs figure out what happened and how to reverse it, and preferably keep the other partygoers alive in the meantime?
By no means do all the Glades' residents get along; there's plenty of rivalry and resentment that usually comes to no more than harsh words, but when feelings run particularly foul may escalate into vandalism, sabotage, and even murder. Of course, the gentlefolk of the manors rarely carry out these acts personally; they hire agents to do their dirty work. The PCs could get caught in the middle either by being at one of the estates when a foe of the owner strikes, by being asked by one of the manor's residents to protect them against another... or possibly by being hired to do such a deed themselves, if they're the kind of characters who would be up for that.
Example:Whiteacre House, home of the affluent Tarmod family that made their wealth largely in coffee imports, is under a curse; loud noises and bright lights out of nowhere make it impossible for its inhabitants to sleep or focus. The Tarmods are sure that one of their many enemies placed the curse (or hired a mage to do so), and they employ the PCs to find out which of them is responsible, and how the curse can be lifted.
The lavish manors of the Glades are filled with all sorts of treasures and telesmata... which of course makes them a tempting target for robbery. Of course their owners have extensive security measures in place to stop thieves, but the potential prizes are attractive enough that some master thieves manage to get through regardless. PCs could be asked to figure out how a thief keeps getting past a manor's security and what can be done to stop them, or to retrieve a stolen item—or, of course, depending on their character and the circumstanes, they could end up breaking into one of the manors themselves, in which case they've got their work cut out for them dealing with or bypassing its various traps and guardians.
Example: Long ago a Djarvish expedition looted a collection of ancient statues from an archæological site in Uaraqui. These statues had enormous cultural significance to the Uaracan people, and after years of lobbying and negotations by Uaraqian government the Djarvish government finally reluctantly returned the statues to Uaraqui from the museums where they were located. A few of the statues, however, were in private ownership, and their owners refused to give them up. One of them, in particular, is in the manor of wealthy shipping magnate Heoria Daynard, and the PCs have been tasked with retrieving it for repatriation. Of course, the manor is very well protected, so that won't be easy...
