I'll give you my idea of a scenario I made back in my age of kings days:
You are a hired adventurer arriving on an island after being summoned to save the people there from an unknown enemy. The man who took you there on his small boat laughs at you as you pay him and he disappears back into the mist and heads out to sea. The dock is your first clue as to the scale of destruction. It is a smoldering ruin, still smoking from the recent assault of what must have been a large army. As you follow the road to the town, burning cottages line the path along the way, also still smoking, then the town itself comes into view. There is no sign of an enemy army except for the charred earth and rubble that was once a vibrant city. The only building that was left unscathed was the temple that was situated outside the main town across a bridge over a river. You approach the temple and as you cross the bridge, a priest appears - apparently the only survivor - and frantically approaches you. "You came!" he says desperately. He explains that he called you for help due to your reputation and that an evil force came and destroyed the town and sent the people to their death. He tells you that he can bring them back to life if only you could bring him the stone that is the 'heart' of the island. The stone is kept safe in a sacred place in the mountains in the center of the island and only a warrior who is brave and true will be able to take it from its resting place. You agree to the quest wanting to help right this wrong.
I will stop there because the point is to make this seem like a standard 'save the people' quest but the story is much more twisted than that and therein lies its value. As I had made it, you end up having to build an army from nothing relying on the other people of the island to harvest resources for you. If you succeed, you will return with an army and finally complete your original quest.
In all your science of the mind, seeking blind through flesh and bone
Find the blood inside this stone
Well, I know I've never shown what I feel, I've always known
I plan my vengeance on my own - and I was always alone