You stroll into the Council of Loathing. You see five men behind a curiously large desk regarding you with a series of stares of various degrees of blankness and inscrutability. It kind of looks like a little less than half of Da Vinci’s Last Supper. “Greetings, adventurer,” the Councilman on the left says. “We have a quest for you. Don’t worry, it’s not for fire or anything.”
He produces a picture of some kind of bizarre conglomeration of gears and levers. “This is obviously a device used for incredibly accurately plotting points on a map. It was stolen from Degrassi Knoll. The Degrassi Gnolls are very eager to have it returned. If you can find it for us, we’ll reward you handsomely. Adventurer, will you help us find The Obvious Plot Device?”