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The Dresden Files => DFRPG => Topic started by: zenten on June 22, 2011, 04:28:33 PM

Title: Looking for an odd "mission" from the fae
Post by: zenten on June 22, 2011, 04:28:33 PM
So I'm thinking for the next session to have some sort of "mission" that the changeling PC would be taking up to earn a favour from another fae.  It should be something that the whole group (who's at Submerged level) would be able to get involved in.  One of the PCs is a cop, so it shouldn't be anything illegal.  I'm getting a bit stumped on specifically what to have it be though.
Title: Re: Looking for an odd "mission" from the fae
Post by: Quantus on June 22, 2011, 04:33:53 PM
"Raid a Dragon's Horde" is a good fallback that fits almost anywhere. 
Title: Re: Looking for an odd "mission" from the fae
Post by: ery13 on June 22, 2011, 04:35:06 PM
Idea 1: Missing
Can always go the "one of my charges is missing and I can't find them" route.  The Fae is looking for a changeling of theirs (for any number of reasons) but they've gone missing.  Pick any antagonist to be holding them, maybe even a former ally of the group's for high drama.  

Idea 2:
Someone is trying to incite conflict within the supernatural community.  Various incidents that appear to be abusing if not out-right breaking the accords is putting the supernatural community at their throats.  The fae in question is being looked at as the scapegoat (maybe they even look like a goat haha).  They ask a favor/call in a favor to get the group to help them.  
Title: Re: Looking for an odd "mission" from the fae
Post by: Haru on June 22, 2011, 04:38:51 PM
Well it would depend on the fae in question. I do like the trickster kind though, and he could send the team on a completely pointless mission that would still be as dangerous as any real mission.

I remember a donald duck comic, where he was send to deliver a package over a certain route, only to later discover, that he was carrying spice samples for an add and he was travelling along the "spice route" which was what the whole thing was about.

Your trickster could send the gang on an equally "important" mission, to go somewhere and retrieve any harmless item, but spread the rumor, that they are returning an item of great power for him to rule all of faery. If the rumour is spread far enough, the wrong persons would know about it and send teams of their own.

He might even provide them with "great weapons" that he hands them very ceremonially, only it later turns out the sword is made from cardboard (and glamoured to appear real), the "bow that doesn't need arrows" does indeed not need them, but it doesn't fire anything whatsoever, and so forth.

Edit:
I would like to call this mission "just in thyme"...
Title: Re: Looking for an odd "mission" from the fae
Post by: wyvern on June 22, 2011, 04:46:27 PM
Pizza delivery.  To somewhere in the nevernever.  Must arrive within thirty minutes.
Title: Re: Looking for an odd "mission" from the fae
Post by: devonapple on June 22, 2011, 04:50:11 PM
One point that was brought up in the "Narrative Control" podcast is that the Fae use human agents (usually their Knights, but other "mortals" or Changelings would do) to do things in human society which are - to the Fae - unfathomable or risky. This doesn't have to be raiding dragon hoards. It can involve working against rival Accord Signatories, weakening opponents, navigating tricky elements of human society to gain an advantage which they themselves could not achieve owing to their peculiar mindsets.

It's easy to play the Fae as superior to humans in every way, but holding back some knowledge from them, and making it incumbent upon the Fae to recruit mortals to figure out the "fiddly bits," can give the players opportunities which aren't always smash-and-grab or termination contracts.
Title: Re: Looking for an odd "mission" from the fae
Post by: Quantus on June 22, 2011, 04:57:33 PM
Acquire a large supply of Fae contraband (Iron) and deliver it to an unseelie agent in the NN?
Title: Re: Looking for an odd "mission" from the fae
Post by: tetrasodium on June 22, 2011, 06:43:53 PM
- bring a large quantity of fertilizer to a place of the fae's choosing... likely to be distributed by minions or something mundane, but enough  fertilizer to get the players added to a list somewhere and potentially be an issue if they have collateral damage issues in the future.
-going on the iron/contraband example someone mentioned... Bring a number of steel jacketed rounds, some ceramic guns.  Maybe some gloves of some sort for loading them. Likewise it's a purchase that is likely to attract addition to a list somewhere
Title: Re: Looking for an odd "mission" from the fae
Post by: zenten on June 22, 2011, 07:04:16 PM
- bring a large quantity of fertilizer to a place of the fae's choosing... likely to be distributed by minions or something mundane, but enough  fertilizer to get the players added to a list somewhere and potentially be an issue if they have collateral damage issues in the future.
-going on the iron/contraband example someone mentioned... Bring a number of steel jacketed rounds, some ceramic guns.  Maybe some gloves of some sort for loading them. Likewise it's a purchase that is likely to attract addition to a list somewhere

The problem is that one of the PCs is a cop with a high contacts and a stunt that boosts to police related rolls.  So "will get you in trouble with the cops" isn't a big issue for him, assuming he's OK with it in the first place.
Title: Re: Looking for an odd "mission" from the fae
Post by: Lanir on June 22, 2011, 07:07:21 PM
Lots of good ideas here. Another style that hasn't quite come up is the "deceptively simple request".

It all starts out sounding so innocent. The fae wants you to water a tree. Well, that shouldn't be hard, right? Just get a cup or something and... But wait, it's a specific tree. A bonzai tree. From a specific monastery in Japan. That's hundreds of years old. It's entire life it's only been watered by specifically consecrated water. The fae wants you to dump plain old tap water on it. The thing just happens to be in town for the week. And did I forget to mention it was guarded..?

The basic way to structure stuff like this is snowball it and let the characters find out the details along the way as much as possible. :)  Like a snowball, by the time you're done just about anything can end up lumped in. Just have to make sure you don't put too many layers in and lose your players.
Title: Re: Looking for an odd "mission" from the fae
Post by: UmbraLux on June 22, 2011, 08:27:00 PM
So I'm thinking for the next session to have some sort of "mission" that the changeling PC would be taking up to earn a favour from another fae.  It should be something that the whole group (who's at Submerged level) would be able to get involved in.  One of the PCs is a cop, so it shouldn't be anything illegal.  I'm getting a bit stumped on specifically what to have it be though.
Do you have any city aspects usable for inspiration?  What about the fae's aspects?  What does it want?

Some general things a fae might want from humans / other supernaturals:
Title: Re: Looking for an odd "mission" from the fae
Post by: tymire on June 22, 2011, 08:34:14 PM
Have them go to a baseball game and say to the people in Section 112 seats 13 and 14 that  "Camels have 3 eyelids, but 1 in 5,000 north Atlantic lobsters are born bright blue" during the 7th inning stretch and leave without talking to anyone else.
Title: Re: Looking for an odd "mission" from the fae
Post by: tetrasodium on June 22, 2011, 08:37:33 PM
Have them go to a baseball game and say to the people in Section 112 seats 13 and 14 that  "Camels have 3 eyelids, but 1 in 5,000 north Atlantic lobsters are born bright blue" during the 7th inning stretch and leave without talking to anyone else.
That's just evil  8) ;D :D
Title: Re: Looking for an odd "mission" from the fae
Post by: tymire on June 22, 2011, 08:49:52 PM
Imo too often we give critters logical reasons for the things they want done.  Too often folks forget that fey are NOT human, who knows what they want?   ;)
Title: Re: Looking for an odd "mission" from the fae
Post by: devonapple on June 22, 2011, 09:01:29 PM
So now that we've helped out with a bunch of "why" suggestions, here are some examples of odd requests.

Switch a pair of identical dogs owned by identical twins who never met.
Retrieve the last cigarette butt to be swept out of [insert local stadium here] after a serious home team loss, and give it to [insert odd NPC]. Then make sure the last one has a piece of gum stuck to it, and decide whether the addition makes it invalid.
Hug your state Senator.
Make sure a particular deli passes an upcoming health inspection. The deli has no obvious tactical, supernatural or political value.
Rescue someone who will drown in [insert body of water here] in the next week. Don't give an actual day or time.
Title: Re: Looking for an odd "mission" from the fae
Post by: Haru on June 22, 2011, 09:08:53 PM
Rescue someone who will drown in [insert body of water here] in the next week. Don't give an actual day or time.

Uh, that one could be all kinds of twisty. How about the fae can see into the future, and like Bob described in PG, if the fae would interact directly, it would get paradoxy pretty quick. In this case the person about to drown is one of the group, that will get attacked by something in the sea (Even Hands:
(click to show/hide)
). He would have been attacked anyway, but this way he can defend himself and kill the creature for the fae.
Title: Re: Looking for an odd "mission" from the fae
Post by: ery13 on June 22, 2011, 09:12:11 PM
So now that we've helped out with a bunch of "why" suggestions, here are some examples of odd requests.

Switch a pair of identical dogs owned by identical twins who never met.
Retrieve the last cigarette butt to be swept out of [insert local stadium here] after a serious home team loss, and give it to [insert odd NPC]. Then make sure the last one has a piece of gum stuck to it, and decide whether the addition makes it invalid.
Hug your state Senator.
Make sure a particular deli passes an upcoming health inspection. The deli has no obvious tactical, supernatural or political value.
Rescue someone who will drown in [insert body of water here] in the next week. Don't give an actual day or time.

I like where you are taking this and wish to join in.

Buy one packet of peanutbutter eminems from every (insert gas station) within city limits and deliver all of the green eminems to (isnert NPC).

Search every bathroom in (insert biggest building in town) and find out which one drains the wrong way.

Go to the local park and find a rose, a daffodil, and a lilly, and then throw them in the fountain at exactly 10:53 PM

Collect two monkeys, one penguin, and a zebra from the zoo and report back to me.

Title: Re: Looking for an odd "mission" from the fae
Post by: tetrasodium on June 22, 2011, 09:30:30 PM
So now that we've helped out with a bunch of "why" suggestions, here are some examples of odd requests.

Switch a pair of identical dogs owned by identical twins who never met.
Retrieve the last cigarette butt to be swept out of [insert local stadium here] after a serious home team loss, and give it to [insert odd NPC]. Then make sure the last one has a piece of gum stuck to it, and decide whether the addition makes it invalid.
Hug your state Senator.
Make sure a particular deli passes an upcoming health inspection. The deli has no obvious tactical, supernatural or political value.
Rescue someone who will drown in [insert body of water here] in the next week. Don't give an actual day or time.
This made me think of another
Give them all cards with one of 2/3 versions of what needs to be done, 1/2 versions are actually what needs doing, the others are irrelevant. They may not tell the others what they are individually given to do but need to determine which is the correct thing to do and do so... Bonus points if the red herring is mutually exclusive with the thing that needs doing.... sort of a "I presented both of our tasks with those stipulations to be fair to both of us and they decided my task was more fitting/important."  ?If they wind up doing the wrong task, then new possibilities open up for undoing the harm/fallout with the fae that wanted them to choose "wisely".
Title: Re: Looking for an odd "mission" from the fae
Post by: Arcane on June 22, 2011, 11:55:04 PM
Get a blues band back together and have them perform a benefit concert to save an orphanage by raising enough money to pay back taxes that are due soon.
Title: Re: Looking for an odd "mission" from the fae
Post by: computerking on June 23, 2011, 12:15:48 AM
Get a blues band back together and have them perform a benefit concert to save an orphanage by raising enough money to pay back taxes that are due soon.

No, the OP said a mission from the Fae. That one is a mission from god.
Title: Re: Looking for an odd "mission" from the fae
Post by: Haru on June 23, 2011, 12:18:20 AM
Another one from my (seemingly endless) source of disney comics. They seem to be a great inspiration for me. This one is from a Phantomias comic (Donald's superhero alter ego) (and I know it is Barks rather then Disney).

There are some transdimensional rifts throughout Duckburg that are not visible to the naked eye. Phantomias however got special goggles that allow him to see the rifts as well as a device that allows him to close them (sort of a slimeball throwing vaccum thingy).

For the DFRPG this could be rifts between the nevernever and the real world, places where the nevernever threatens to bleed over into the real world and they have to be closed for both sides sake. These rifts however don't exactly appear where they would be appropriate. And what are you going to do if the next rift is about to open in the middle of the field during the big game?

The fae would provide them with some sort of scrying device, that will help them locate the rifts as they open. Closing them could either be the job of the wizard in the group or of another magical device, or they got an instruction for a ritual the group must follow. Getting to a rift could be done with a challenge, the group has X exchanges to achieve Y shifts to get to the rift in time, otherwise they will have to deal with whatever is bleeding through there, too. Things bleeding through might not even be turned into ectoplasm instantly, because of their unique nature. And of course demons and other... things. Would not do so at all.

The rifts could be a natural cause, so the only goal is to keep them closed until the phenomenon is over, or there is something (someone) behind them and the characters have to get to the bottom (while still finding and closing the rifts, of course).
Title: Re: Looking for an odd "mission" from the fae
Post by: Blackblade on June 23, 2011, 05:01:43 AM
Adjust every projector in a large movie theatre so that the video is half a second off-sync with the audio and cannot be easily fixed.
Acquire the original US patent for elbow grease.
Put fake Denarian coins on the offering tray at a Catholic church.
Appraise the exact value of a lesser dragon's hoard without waking it up.
Steal the Erlking's chamberpot. 

Title: Re: Looking for an odd "mission" from the fae
Post by: Set Abominae on June 23, 2011, 06:36:28 AM
Recover the elfin magic from Keebler.  ;D
Title: Re: Looking for an odd "mission" from the fae
Post by: tetrasodium on June 23, 2011, 07:20:42 AM
Adjust every projector in a large movie theatre so that the video is half a second off-sync with the audio and cannot be easily fixed.

I worked i one back when I was in highschool years back, this is actually remarkably difficult because the audio is along the edge of the film so should always be in sync unless you have  bad print.  Some of the newer DTS  type systems use it for syncing the dts disk with the film, but you can't really get them out of sync
Title: Re: Looking for an odd "mission" from the fae
Post by: SpoonR on June 23, 2011, 05:47:57 PM
Bring me... a shrubbery! Or a perfect donut (yah, they contracted it out  ;D).

Traditionally, fae have trouble creating 'real' things. Make something. A perfect homecooked meal. Or, a perfectly RUINED homecooked meal.

A typical Mab-type request would be "do this seemingly simple thing that, while you're doing it, will coincedentally violate or negate the letter of a promise I made." For example, sending Harry to do just about anything in a building, that just happens to contain something you want burned.

Assassinate another fae. In some stories, a faerie battle had no real deaths, and so no winners or losers, unless a mortal participated.

Eat me.

Just about anything that will offend someone other than the police. Capturing dewdrop fairies? Not illegal. Taking a tree out of a park? Not illegal for this park, but will make the creatures that do rituals at the tree grumpy.

Oh, this is a fun one that might or might not be illegal, depending on your point of view. The famous painting in the art museum is a fake. Here's the original. Switch the two. Sure its breaking and entering, but you are also undoing a forgery.

Find the counterfeit dollar bills. Normal money is worthless to a fae, but a worthless thing that is treated as valueable but is therefore worthless to a fae, is oddly interesting.

Get me a backstage pass to the Elton John concert so I can capture his music.
Title: Re: Looking for an odd "mission" from the fae
Post by: Quantus on June 23, 2011, 05:50:39 PM
Act against somebody that is unaligned to one of the Fae courts?   Basically fill in for a task that would normally go to the Winter Knight, if he weren't somewhat indisposed at the moment (it works with most recent points in the timeline, too) 
Title: Re: Looking for an odd "mission" from the fae
Post by: tetrasodium on June 24, 2011, 03:15:24 AM
Something I saw on BBCA where a guy got killed by a modified gun called a "bagel" that was originally made to fire teargas pellets for self defense got me wondering just wtf this thing was.. Apparently actually only sounds like bagel when said right and it was actually a "Baikal".When I figured out wtf it actually was I thought of this thread.. go to [insert Bagel shop/chain], get a "special" baikal from [insert person] and use it on*/protect [person] with it.
If you manage to soften the k so it sounds similar to bagel you can have your players scratching holes in their heads in confusion, especially if you put stipulations like not opening the package until its time to use it or refusing to explain the "obvious" how to use a bagel part
info about it: http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/the_way_we_live/article4359522.ece

* I remembered the no illegal activities requirement so added protect, but the teargas version could still be legal possibly.  
Title: Re: Looking for an odd "mission" from the fae
Post by: Sh33p on June 24, 2011, 05:39:32 AM
Recover a certain lawn gnome locked in an iron safe.

The safe is in Marcone's office.
Title: Re: Looking for an odd "mission" from the fae
Post by: Quasispike on June 24, 2011, 05:41:57 AM
Bring me a Green icicle from Maeve's frozen sculpture garden/ a rose bush from Lilly's garden. Turns out The opposing court has an important pixie captured (frozen in Ice or Wrapped in a Wickedly Barbed Rose bush). The Fae cannot free the pixie themselves without stirring up intercourt hostilities, and with this wording can claim No I did not send them to free said pixie.