Small adventure idea needed
What it says on the tin, really...
Currently I'm in a situation in which my D&D party (5th ed, if it matters) had decided to go try to scope out an evoker-mage who had put out a bounty on the party's heads. Problem is, they were so ... not-stealthy and not-subtle about it, they ended up being invited onto the ship that the evoker lives on.
The reason for the bounty was that the evoker had her eyes on a specific magic item, and the PC's blundered into the temple it was kept in and took it, spoiling the evoker's plans to get it. Now, I figure, the evoker will say, "Well, I was going to take it off your dead bodies, and I didn't know where you were, so a bounty seemed appropriate. Give me the item and we'll call it even." - but you know adventurers. They're not going to give it over.
I'm sure the evoker would have some other 'job' for them that will even the score, or somesuch, but I'm drawing a blank. Just going back and liberating another item seems... A little too 'rote'. So what else can the evoker ask of them that's not just bog-standard monster hunt or dungeon crawl?
Some backstory / worldbuilding:
The entire campaign so far has been set in an enormous city that was built on the ruins of a an ancient city that burned down a long time ago. The ruins have all manner of weird stuff in it. The city itself sits in the middle of a huge blasted plain with an enormous lake aside it (allowing ship traffic to some degree, and shipping is needed as the city has very little in the line of natural resources)
The PC's have recently joined a group of mercs that do an unofficial city watch, and are gaining fame / infamy due to a noble wedding they attended in which the wedding was spoiled and the chapel was mostly destroyed. The party consists of a brother-sister halfling duo (a sorc and a wizard), a disgraced noble human swashbuckler, and a tiefling bard / warlock who works as a dominatrix.
The entire game is supposed to hinge around politics and intrigue, but I do like to throw straight-up combat in from time to time.
I am officially open to suggestions!