Help me make a one-shot, pronto

[Kindling]

I'm finally meeting back up with my players tomorrow after a hiatus from roleplaying with them of more than a year. The basic plan is not to dive straight back into our ongoing Dark Silver campaign but do one or more one-shots to warm up, as it were, and get ourselves back into the swing of things. This also gives us the chance to test out Savage Worlds and get familiar with it, as before we were using Iron Heroes.

I have plenty of cool stuff for Savage Worlds that I've either downloaded or come up with myself over the past few months, so we should be able to muck about with all that quite happily for an evening. However, hopeful as I am for Savage Worlds, I do recognise there is a possibility that my players just won't be as excited by it as I am. In this eventuality, I want to be able to go "That's cool guys, it was worth a try, now let's just go back to playing D20" and have something to throw at them.

I have the seeds of a nice little adventure ready, but it's late, I have a headache, and you fine people are often a font of great ideas, so I'm going to try to grow that seed with some help, if you'll oblige.

The players will quickly (or not so quickly) roll up 1st-level characters. They will be playing in an off-the-cuff generically fantasised pseudo-medieval setting, their characters being a team of "uniquely talented individuals" employed by a high priest of the local monolithic religion to secretly combat servants of the bestial Old Gods and the evil Elven God of Midnight Flames. They've been together about 6 months in his employ, and been on two missions so far, both of which were hairy but successful. The high priest hasn't directly told them this, but they've kind of picked up over that time that they're not the first such group he's put together for this purpose, but it's unclear whether their predecessors are all dead or there are multiple teams at work throughout the land.

The high priest has recently had reports from the township of Shiverthorpe that the local baron, Lord Grimner, is about to marry a mysterious foreign woman suspected by the local clergy of witchcraft, although it's unsure which dark power she specifically follows. The PCs are despatched to investigate and, if necessary, terminate her with extreme prejudice...

Grimner hardly spends any time in Shiverthorpe, instead waging war to the south in the name of his cousin, the Duke of Maul, and only normally comes back to raise fresh levies.
The bride I think will indeed turn out to be a witch, but also not the biggest threat to the good folk of Shiverthorpe - that will come in the form of a taciturn friend Lord Grimner made on the battlefields of the south, a man who is secretly an agent of evil powers. Exactly what his plot is, I'm not sure, but there will be goblins involved somehow because this is a 1st-level d20 adventure.
The local clergy should also be crazy in such a way that, depending on the choices they make, the PCs may end up having to fight them.

So, by about 2.30 GMT tomorrow I'd like to have worked out a few key scenes and combats to run the chaps through, possibly culminating in some kind of chaotic showdown erupting at the wedding-feast.
My ideas for opponents so far -
The witch - probably, oddly enough, a witch
The agent of evil - probably a cleric
Goblins - not sure why yet, they might even be unconnected to the plot and just turn up to make mischief at some point
The undead - servants of either the witch or the agent of evil... or both?
Some kind of big gribbly monster - probably summoned by the agent of evil
Lord Grimner and his knights - if provoked by, say, the PCs trying to kill his lady love
The local lunatic priests - probably more of the crazed-cultist variety than actual spell-castic clerics

so yah... more either in a bit or in the morning, depending on how quickly I fall asleep :)

[Kindling]

So, the agent of evil, Sir Seth, will have spent his time in Shiverthorpe finding any excuse to chase "criminals." He invariably executes them - if their original "crime" wasn't severe enough to warrant it, he cites "resisting arrest" as a reason to increase the punishment. The local monks, led by the puritanical Brother Vernigan, see him as something of a saint for punishing what they see as the lawless and sinful ways of the commoners. Oddly, although the usual form of summary execution in these parts is hanging, he always burns them at the stake... Oh well, must be some southern custom, eh? Well, yes, if by that you mean a series of ritual sacrifices to the Elven God of Midnight Flames, Silduro!

The bride-to-be, Lady Nephthys, is also of interest to Brother Vernigan, for very different reasons. When the PCs first meet with him he will rant about her decadent and licentious ways - wearing a skirt INCHES above her ankles, speaking without permission in the company of men, and drinking whole CUPS of wine with her meals... or is it even wine? Might it not be the blood of the innocent?
More to the point, the monks have glimpsed her visiting the ancient barrow of the Old Gods in the dead of night, surely to work some pagan witchcraft!

If the PCs investigate Sir Seth they will eventually discover an eyewitness report of one of his executions stating that he invoked strange and foreign prayers as the victim burned.
If the PCs investigate Lady Nephthys they will find out very little unless they stake out the barrow at midnight, whereupon she will arrive and offer sacrifices and prayers to the Old Gods. This would be the best time to take her out, if they so desire, as she is alone and isolated. If they do, however, Lord Grimner will notice she is missing and bully Brother Vernigan into telling him about the PCs and their mission and gather his knights, including Sir Seth, and men-at-arms to hunt them down in force.
The day after the PCs arrive in Shiverthorpe a band of goblins will launch a surprise attack while Lord Grimner's men are mostly occupied with a meal at the castle. If the PCs have failed to investigate either Sir Seth or Lady Nephthys so far, one of them will be caught in the raid and forced to reveal themselves by using black magic to defend themselves from the goblins.
The next day, assuming the PCs haven't yet killed anyone, will be the wedding, and Brother Vernigan will arrange for the PCs to attend as his guests. During the feast both Seth and Nephthys will reveal themselves - not sure yet how - and shit will most likely go down, with Grimner and his goons defending either or both of them if the PCs attack, Seth summoning undead minions to protect himself, and the delusional Vernigan and his creepy monks refusing to believe Seth is evil and denouncing the PCs as heretics and agents of sin before mobbing them, should they make a move on Seth.

[Ghostman]

I think the bride would be better used as a red herring. Make her very suspicious (eg. foreign traditions that could be mistaken for witchcraft) but ultimately innocent so the PCs fail to find any discriminating evidence. But if they turn their attention to sir Seth, he may decide to plant some forged evidence to indicate the lady to get the investigators off his back. Better yet, if he can manipulate the PCs into attacking the lady on false evidence, he'll then have a legitimate case to have them hunted down, tried and burned. This could get particularly interesting if the PCs can easily figure out that he set them up, but have no easy way to prove it.

[LD]

I agree with Ghostman, that's more dramatically interesting than having everyone in opposition to the characters.

[Superfluous Crow]

I think you should go with her mix, let her be a genuine witch, but a benign one. Maybe she has only ever used her knowledge of witchcraft (which, yes, could stem from foreign traditions) to heal a servant, which is how the rumors spread in the first place.
Depending on how strict their orders are, they might consider her magic heresy and kill her even though she is clearly innocent. Do make her a red herring, by all means, but throw in a measure of moral dilemma.
Campaigns and sessions often feel more interesting when a lot is happening at once; when the story is layered with multiple angles of investigation, mysteries and enemies.
The lunatic priests might be their initial contacts, being the clerics of the local church (which is part of the same faith is yours). Their type of crazy should be the seething under-the-skin sort of madness. They might be planning a coup against the lord, inflaming the public against him (and his filthy foreign wife). Of course, while with the players they will display the expected courtesy, piety and decor befitting men of their rank and faith. They might even invite the players to a dinner party with the accused witch. Depending on the actions of the players they might later try to kill her themselves.
I think it might be more fun to have Seth and the monks be at cross purposes.

[Kindling]

Well, we had a good session, but we ran SW so I didn't use any of this, but I shall tuck it away for use another time :)