A favor is owed and it's time to collect.

[Cullasdir]

G'day, here's the background. My group is chasing down clues to find what might be the only Half-orc child in existence. They came across a diary of the guardian of this child with all but a single page ripped out. No one knew the language and they were a hurry to find out what was on the page as this was their first lead. They took the page to a Dragonborn scholor in one of the taverns and asked him to translate it. The Dragonborn offered to translate it over a week as he was preoccupied and it was an ancient dialect of draconic. He'd do it for 5 gold pieces, but they wanted it as soon as possible so he offered to abandon what he was doing and work through the rest of the day and night to translate it for 150 gold pieces. Unfortunately everyone was broke and couldn't afford that, so instead they took his final offer: A favor to be decided at a later date.

A few months later it's time to collect on that favor, but this character isn't malicious at all, as much as I'm sure some people would love some kind of malevolent plan to bloom out of this. Instead I was thinking that he the favor could be to aid his friend, a smith, in creating an item that would make creating both simple and intricate items on the move with no forge. The item will be called an Eldiniir's Anvil & Hammer.

The items needed to create this item would be:

- Wings of a fire moth (fire moth: A medium sized creature resembling a butterfly. It is patterned with flowing red, orange and black colors like lava. It uses an innate magical ability to manipulate water like a magnet to hunt and defend itself and rests in high terrains. This creature is prone to suicidal tendencies, releasing upon it's death a magical surge that evaporates most moisture within a hundred feet, poisoning and freezing all water within a kilometer. For this reason it is very rarely kept in captivity or sought after at all.)

- A decent sized water-gem (water-gems are very common in the country they're in, especially during the cold seasons as they wash up on beaches. They are pretty fragile though and have limited uses.

- 10 days worth of snowflakes (small biscuit-like food that is used to stave off the unbearable heat during the hot season and can be crumbled on to crops periodically to keep them growing healthily through the heat.)

- Some kind of chisel.

I'm not sure what material I want the chisel to be yet, but it will be used to cut the water-gem into a custom anvil that when combined with the absorption of snowflake bits will take on the properties suited to smith on. The hammer will be of good quality but what makes it special is the that by imbuing it with the wings of the fire moth it will have a strange interaction when swung against the anvil. The magical magnetism of the hammer will work upon the water-gem in conjunction with the effects of the snowflake to allow anything on the anvil to heat up quickly and allow the smith to both accurately and effectively make good work in a short time with no forge. He will later be creating some other tools to make unique stuff on this anvil later.

So all in all this would make for a stop at some shops looking for snowflakes and considering the neighborhood they will most likely encounter bullies, obtaining a method of getting to the beach to grab a water-gem of the right size, learning how to hunt an exotic creature and getting any kind of protective clothing they can for that and obtaining a chisel suited for the task.

What do you think about this little favor quest, and do you have any ideas for what material the chisel could be? Also, I don't know a whole lot on the subject of anvils but I figured this seems plausible enough in a fantasy world.

[Magzimum]

Assuming some of these items are hard to find: I think it's a lot of work for 150 gc, so that's one smart Dragonborn! :smalltongue:

It's a simple find & retrieve mission, which is nothing revolutionary, but sometimes it is nice to have a simple mission. While the players are searching for the ingredients, you can already start dropping hints about the campaign after this side-quest is over: they may already find pieces of the next puzzle, or overhear some news or rumors.

[Unoriginal]

The chisel could be coral. Like what a Marrid would use.

[Merudo]

Just curious, but how would you react if the PCs just gave 150 gold pieces (maybe with additional gold to account for interest) to the scholar and said that as far as they are concerned, the debt was paid?

Unless the group is made of mostly lawful characters, I think they'd at least consider this option.

As Magzimum said, it's a lot of work for 150 gp.

[Cullasdir]

"Assuming some of these items are hard to find: I think it's a lot of work for 150 gc, so that's one smart Dragonborn! :smalltongue:

It's a simple find & retrieve mission, which is nothing revolutionary, but sometimes it is nice to have a simple mission. While the players are searching for the ingredients, you can already start dropping hints about the campaign after this side-quest is over: they may already find pieces of the next puzzle, or overhear some news or rumors."

Yeah that was the plan :smallsmile:. Everyone in the group is quite busy with work and other commitments and can struggle trying to piece together information from multiple sessions. I thought something straight forward would be a nice change of pace. You make a good point, this could be a lot of work for the gold. Hm... In this campaign setting the amount of magic items and gold is low in general though because my group likes slower progression. I love Unoriginal's idea of a coral chisel, I think a little chat with a knowledgeable Marrid might make the whole thing worthwhile, in addition to having little connection with a scholar for what good that could do them.

"Just curious, but how would you react if the PCs just gave 150 gold pieces (maybe with additional gold to account for interest) to the scholar and said that as far as they are concerned, the debt was paid?

Unless the group is made of mostly lawful characters, I think they'd at least consider this option.

As Magzimum said, it's a lot of work for 150 gp."

I'd be totally down for them to do that but I know this NPC wouldn't be likely to accept such a trade. He would refuse that offer and depending on how the conversation go would possibly consider an easier task. He's a pretty chill guy after all. It wouldn't go well if they were only interested in paying 150gc though, and I suspect he'd sooner decline any trade at all than accept that. As a lawful character he would retaliate through spreading their bad name and they might miss out on a few opportunities in the future.

"The chisel could be coral. Like what a Marrid would use."

I love this idea and I know it's not necessary that they meet a Marrid but I know how I can work one in to make this all a bit more interesting :smallsmile:.

Thanks for some feedback guys!

[Davrix]

I mean let me preface this with saying. Your table your rules and if this is how you and your group has fun cool, awesome, but that being said. (and some may disagree with me)

FETCH QUESTS ARE LAME

I can think of nothing more boring, time consuming and kills the mood of fun dnd (to me at least) then the idea of a npc telling me to go find X items and bring them back. The only exception to this rule is a world ending maguffen quest but even that has its limits.

Also let me say. All questing in some way is fetching something at times. But for the love of Bahamut don't hand the party a check list and so go find me these things because i say so.

[Cullasdir]

I mean let me preface this with saying. Your table your rules and if this is how you and your group has fun cool, awesome, but that being said. (and some may disagree with me)

FETCH QUESTS ARE LAME

I can think of nothing more boring, time consuming and kills the mood of fun dnd (to me at least) then the idea of a npc telling me to go find X items and bring them back. The only exception to this rule is a world ending maguffen quest but even that has its limits.

Also let me say. All questing in some way is fetching something at times. But for the love of Bahamut don't hand the party a check list and so go find me these things because i say so.

Well to be fair my entire campaign setting has been extremely open ended. We had a session zero and I gave them some options of what to do for a campaign, then put them in a rural town where the child had lived and gave them some rumors to work off of and I let them do what they would. I just try to introduce cool cities, creatures and people to the group as they explore and try to find clues. They could literally tell this guy "Up yours ya dumb Dragonborn!" and suffer some bad reputation, go off and do whatever if they wanted lol. They're in ghetto sort of area too so I imagine if they really wanted information there are a ton of less than reputable people in the city that could get them it in exchange for just gold.

[Davrix]

Well to be fair my entire campaign setting has been extremely open ended. We had a session zero and I gave them some options of what to do for a campaign, then put them in a rural town where the child had lived and gave them some rumors to work off of and I let them do what they would. I just try to introduce cool cities, creatures and people to the group as they explore and try to find clues. They could literally tell this guy "Up yours ya dumb Dragonborn!" and suffer some bad reputation, go off and do whatever if they wanted lol. They're in ghetto sort of area too so I imagine if they really wanted information there are a ton of less than reputable people in the city that could get them it in exchange for just gold.

That may be fair to a degree but the fact remains. The favor you have thought of is way beyond what is owed. Which then leads us into railroad territory as it encouraged one option over another because its unreasonable. A more likely favor would be he needs research done and needs the party to escort him into some tomb or old library for a day. have a few battles, maybe drop some more plot hooks, give a little character to the NPC and call it a favor satisfied. Not to mention when you play up the idea the party is big and strong and yea know. Stroke there ego's a bit. These work out better, oh and don't make him an utterly useless NPC. Lets not turn this into a crappy escort mission. People always think the NPC shouldn't help when the DM runs him. This guy might have a few spell scrolls or maybe some cantrips or a potion or two of something if the party gets into trouble he can use to help out.

[JellyPooga]

No offense or anything, but this had me in stitches from the start.

One: The party finds a diary they need to translate and instead of hitting up the library, a temple, the local mage or even the closest noble or lord for guidance...they go to a guy in a pub who claims to be some kind of scholar.

Two: Said "guy in a pub" (who I imagine has a cockney accent) gives them the runaround, "I got a lot on, so I'll get around to it, yeah?" but the players want a rush-job, so he hits them in the wallet, no hesitation "One-fifty. Large. It's the best I can do guv." Then when they can't pony up that kind of dough, he cuts them a deal; "I'll tell you what; I like your faces so I'll do it for free...but here's the catch; I want a favour. Deal?".

Three: The players are willing to owe a favour. I almost lol'd at that one. I mean, we're still talking about some shady dude they met in a tavern, right? The one that was going to charge enough money to feed a family for a year, just to read a book for them? Can you put me in touch with this party, I have some snake oil and sky hooks going cheap, with a special on invisible paint!

Four: It turns out ok; shady guy isn't so shady. He just wants the party to go shopping for him. Er, what? He was going to shill them for 150gp and now he just wants them to bob-a-job a (kinda fancy) grocery run? Is this Dragonborn really an elderly lady? Is he going to offer them some hard candies for a job well done and ask if they'll clean his gutters next weekend?

A riot of laughs.

Seriously, though, the players are expecting to repay a favour to some guy in a pub, not do Mrs.Jenkins shopping for her. You can still get the players to do this fetch quest, if your heart is set on it, but please please please don't make it "the favour owed". There's so much more you can do with "a favour"; you can get the players to ask themselves moral questions, get them to evaluate their concept of "value", you can put them in danger, you can risk their social standing, you can, in short, put their asses on the line and engage the players as well as their characters.

A favour asks so many questions;
- What opinion do the players have of the task?
- Are they willing to go through with it?
- If not, how are they going to avoid the repayment?
- What consequences will this have? How will the debt be reconciled?
- If the players are willing to pay the favour, how are they going about it?
- Is it illegal? Is it moral? Do the players even know the answer to these questions?
- Are there any curve balls involved? What happens if something goes wrong, or the players get hold of information that changes their perspective on the "favour"?
- What consequences does completing the favour have, beyond relieving the players of their debt?
- Who is the quest-giver, really?

A shopping list does not ask these questions.

[Cullasdir]

That may be fair to a degree but the fact remains. The favor you have thought of is way beyond what is owed. Which then leads us into railroad territory as it encouraged one option over another because its unreasonable. A more likely favor would be he needs research done and needs the party to escort him into some tomb or old library for a day. have a few battles, maybe drop some more plot hooks, give a little character to the NPC and call it a favor satisfied. Not to mention when you play up the idea the party is big and strong and yea know. Stroke there ego's a bit. These work out better, oh and don't make him an utterly useless NPC. Lets not turn this into a crappy escort mission. People always think the NPC shouldn't help when the DM runs him. This guy might have a few spell scrolls or maybe some cantrips or a potion or two of something if the party gets into trouble he can use to help out.

Well this is scholar isn't interested in old tombs or libraries. He's currently studying a magical item known as a Ka'kari (totally ripped and adapted from the Night Angel Trilogy). There are many Ka'kari and they are essentially pieces of an old druid's soul and each ka'kari gives power over certain elements and can be very powerful in the right hands (A ka'karifer.) The smith I mentioned is one such person and the scholor has been living with the him attempting to learn more about him to find out more about Ka'karifers. He's rather unconventional and likes to get hands on in his studies, so helping the smith achieve a dream he has would make him feel a little bit better for his selfish interest in the man. Not many people would risk attempting to catch a fire moth so if he can get a group of adventurers to do it I imagine he'd like that a lot more than going himself or delving into some dungeon.

[Unoriginal]

I love this idea and I know it's not necessary that they meet a Marrid but I know how I can work one in to make this all a bit more interesting :smallsmile:.


You're welcome!


I mean let me preface this with saying. Your table your rules and if this is how you and your group has fun cool, awesome, but that being said. (and some may disagree with me)

FETCH QUESTS ARE LAME

I can think of nothing more boring, time consuming and kills the mood of fun dnd (to me at least) then the idea of a npc telling me to go find X items and bring them back. The only exception to this rule is a world ending maguffen quest but even that has its limits.

Also let me say. All questing in some way is fetching something at times. But for the love of Bahamut don't hand the party a check list and so go find me these things because i say so.

Eh, as long as the NPCs you meet, enemies you fight and the places you visit while doing so are interesting, it should be alright.

Especially if the PCs get to see the end result and maybe benefit from it rather than the quest giver vanishing in limbo once you've given the thing.

[Cullasdir]

No offense or anything, but this had me in stitches from the start.

One: The party finds a diary they need to translate and instead of hitting up the library, a temple, the local mage or even the closest noble or lord for guidance...they go to a guy in a pub who claims to be some kind of scholar.

Two: Said "guy in a pub" (who I imagine has a cockney accent) gives them the runaround, "I got a lot on, so I'll get around to it, yeah?" but the players want a rush-job, so he hits them in the wallet, no hesitation "One-fifty. Large. It's the best I can do guv." Then when they can't pony up that kind of dough, he cuts them a deal; "I'll tell you what; I like your faces so I'll do it for free...but here's the catch; I want a favour. Deal?".

Three: The players are willing to owe a favour. I almost lol'd at that one. I mean, we're still talking about some shady dude they met in a tavern, right? The one that was going to charge enough money to feed a family for a year, just to read a book for them? Can you put me in touch with this party, I have some snake oil and sky hooks going cheap, with a special on invisible paint!

Four: It turns out ok; shady guy isn't so shady. He just wants the party to go shopping for him. Er, what? He was going to shill them for 150gp and now he just wants them to bob-a-job a (kinda fancy) grocery run? Is this Dragonborn really an elderly lady? Is he going to offer them some hard candies for a job well done and ask if they'll clean his gutters next weekend?

A riot of laughs.

Seriously, though, the players are expecting to repay a favour to some guy in a pub, not do Mrs.Jenkins shopping for her. You can still get the players to do this fetch quest, if your heart is set on it, but please please please don't make it "the favour owed". There's so much more you can do with "a favour"; you can get the players to ask themselves moral questions, get them to evaluate their concept of "value", you can put them in danger, you can risk their social standing, you can, in short, put their asses on the line and engage the players as well as their characters.

A favour asks so many questions;
- What opinion do the players have of the task?
- Are they willing to go through with it?
- If not, how are they going to avoid the repayment?
- What consequences will this have? How will the debt be reconciled?
- If the players are willing to pay the favour, how are they going about it?
- Is it illegal? Is it moral? Do the players even know the answer to these questions?
- Are there any curve balls involved? What happens if something goes wrong, or the players get hold of information that changes their perspective on the "favour"?
- What consequences does completing the favour have, beyond relieving the players of their debt?
- Who is the quest-giver, really?

A shopping list does not ask these questions.

Alright I'm going to level with you. The group is:

1) A dumbass (hey, like 5 Intelligence no offense) Ae'ren (custom race) who's basically a jesus who brought upon a bunch of creatures that were disguised as humans into a frenzy upon the group with his recklessness. He's now changed characters to a vampire... Something.
2) A paladin Oathbreaker? Or something? He burnt an entire group of frog people who had surrendered which brought disorder to the party because most of the party is Good.
3) A Bickan (custom race) rogue who released a hag and almost released a cannibal addicted to human flesh too. This didn't end well.
4) A blood-forest Human (custom variant race) sorcerer who trusts no one in the party at all and watches everyone like a hawk (who can blame him)
5) A newcomer who's playing.. uhm.. A sorcerer also I think who draws ***** on everything.

I've gotten a bit tipsy making this little quest here that I thought would be neat because the party has almost died every session and I wanted something straight forward, hard to mess up and a bit of fun. I'm sorry if the quest isn't too deep but boy they don't look too deep :smallfrown:. They once went to court against a charlatan because he promised them a refund if his show wasn't the best thing they'd seen all week and managed to fail because they straight up lied and said there was nothing in the charlatan's building where he performed the show. (There were several witnesses who denied this and they checked the building).

I feel like I could write a diary of the campaign so far if I sat down for long enough.. then you'd understand how I've come to this point lol. I don't mind it though it's pretty hilarious and the group enjoys it.

[JellyPooga]

Alright I'm going to level with you. The group is:

1) A dumbass (hey, like 5 Intelligence no offense) Ae'ren (custom race) who's basically a jesus who brought upon a bunch of creatures that were disguised as humans into a frenzy upon the group with his recklessness. He's now changed characters to a vampire... Something.
2) A paladin Oathbreaker? Or something? He burnt an entire group of frog people who had surrendered which brought disorder to the party because most of the party is Good.
3) A Bickan (custom race) rogue who released a hag and almost released a cannibal addicted to human flesh too. This didn't end well.
4) A blood-forest Human (custom variant race) sorcerer who trusts no one in the party at all and watches everyone like a hawk (who can blame him)
5) A newcomer who's playing.. uhm.. A sorcerer also I think who draws ***** on everything.

I've gotten a bit tipsy making this little quest here that I thought would be neat because the party has almost died every session and I wanted something straight forward, hard to mess up and a bit of fun. I'm sorry if the quest isn't too deep but boy they don't look too deep :smallfrown:. They once went to court against a charlatan because he promised them a refund if his show wasn't the best thing they'd seen all week and managed to fail because they straight up lied and said there was nothing in the charlatan's building where he performed the show. (There were several witnesses who denied this and they checked the building).

I feel like I could write a diary of the campaign so far if I sat down for long enough.. then you'd understand how I've come to this point lol. I don't mind it though it's pretty hilarious and the group enjoys it.

You have a chaotic sounding party, indeed!

Here's one of my favourite "favours" for an idea (if you want it, of course);

Guard duty.

Seriously. Think "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels". It's something they can't get wrong...unless they mess it up themselves. Have this scholar ask them to sit on something for one evening while he's arranging transportation/a sale/whatever. The players have several options;

1) Do the favour straight. They wait out the night, nothing untoward happens and in the morning, Scholar guy shows up, collects his macguffin and leaves, the debt paid. This option sometimes makes players paranoid for being "too easy" and it's always entertaining to play on paranoia.

2) Aggressively guard the macguffin. They set up traps, they plan ambushes, they get suspicious of passers-by...they generally make themselves active, waiting for the worst. They spend the entire night making things as hard as possible for themselves, assuming that something is going to go down. This option frequently results in something happening because they made it happen (accosting randoms, setting off their own traps, going looking for a fight, etc.).

3) Try to look at/steal/break the thing they're supposed to be guarding. Especially entertaining if the macguffin is fragile or volatile (like your Fire Moth wings, perhaps?). This obviously breaks the deal and leads to hilarity as they try to a) cover their tracks, b) make amends and/or c) have to deal with the consequence of still owing their favour.

4) Argue. This one is almost inevitable. When given nothing to do, PC's always argue. You just need to sit back and watch.

The real beauty of the "guard duty" quest is that it encourages your players to actually interact with each other; most missions are "players vs. non-players" and that means the PC's often ignore each other, but this one is "players in a white room"; it's great to watch the players let their hair down with each other for a spell. Force them to decide what their doing hour by hour; are they laying plans? Are they shooting the breeze? Are they getting itchy fingers? Who's on watch? Who's putting the kettle on? Get them worried that anything might happen, put a little tension in the air and get the popcorn out. If they don't bite, you can always throw in a curve-ball like someone knocking on the door; a visitor who claims to "just be checking in" on behalf of the Scholar. No-one told the PC's about a "check-in"; is he lying? Is he a thief? Is he legit? What do they do? Tie him up? Knock him out? Bar the door?

[ImproperJustice]

Would it be terrible if the guy asked them to clean out his basement/ clear out his Grandmothers attic or help him sort out his home made library?

Sounds simple enough (maybe there is some kind of monster involved) or maybe it is just super tedious and dull.

BUT!!!

They find an old dusty book in some forgotten corner that details the creation of the forge you specified above.

Now the players can seek it out of “They want to”.

This gives then agency to decide to do the quest and remove some of the forced tedium, and encourages them to be helpful to NPCs in your world.