Fun Ten Minute Quests

[DragonBaneDM]

Hey guys!

So what I wanted to do in this thread was make a fun little list of just short, kind of easily resolved quest ideas that can be completed without any combat and without a full, complex skill challenge. Plot twists and humor totally encouraged. I'm sure we've all had and enjoyed these types of quests in the past, and the trope of the characters running around town helping and interacting with NPCs and the environment is very enjoyable.

Some of my experiences (on mobile, sorry for the lack of formatting!)

A group of cultists harassing farmers is revealed to be a benign offshoot of the city watch.
A PC gets into a rhyming contest with a local poetry club.
The party disrupts a local gang of bullies who were picking on a child.
A PC help soothe an oxen or horse that was spooked.
The PCs play cards with a dragon, fiend, or angel in disguise.
The party gets jumped by a mugger who really just needed someone to talk to.

What fun little quests have you guys had?

[Rakoa]

Local kids are stealing blueberries from Farmer Fred's blueberry patch at night. Can the PCs catch the perps before the last berry is burgled!!?

[TheThan]

Local kids are stealing blueberries from Farmer Fred's blueberry patch at night. Can the PCs catch the perps before the last berry is burgled!!?

Make those crunch berries and we’re golden.

Anyway, here we go (note, some of these are probably a little longer than ten minutes):

-A hag or witch is luring strapping young men (and/or nubile young women) into the swamp and murdering them.
-There’s a ghoul murdering people in the graveyard
-A local thief sells them a fake treasure map which leads them into an ambush
-The inn keeper has a rat problem; he’s willing to pay good money for someone to deal with it.
-The local (magic item) merchant is having a fight with his wife, can the PCs get them to reconcile and reopen their shop.
-A wizard has lost his hat of disguise.
-A barmaid has mistaken one of the PCs as the long lost father of her child. Bonus points if they’ve never been to the town before.
-Two burly bar patrons make bets that they can punch harder than the other, they decide to get one of the PCs to help them settle their bet.
-Two magic shops are competing for the pcs business, offering magical items at low, low, low prices.
-The statue in the center of the fountain is actually a famous hero, frozen for all time by a basilisk.

[JAL_1138]

A non-hostile encounter with Crazy Hassan. The players leave with camels, whether they wanted camels or not.

[Spartakus]

A wyrmling or very young copper dragon stole a virgin from a nearby village because he read in a fairytale that dragons have to steal virgins some time. He waits for a group of heroes to free the virgin and is willing to release her if the heroes can tell him a new joke. Sadly the village already hired a group of heavily armed dragon hunters.

[TheThan]

A wyrmling or very young copper dragon stole a virgin from a nearby village because he read in a fairytale that dragons have to steal virgins some time. He waits for a group of heroes to free the virgin and is willing to release her if the heroes can tell him a new joke. Sadly the village already hired a group of heavily armed dragon hunters.

how about a dragon that needs to be saved from the princess.

[hamishspence]

Dragon egg was stolen - sold to a spellcasting princess who wants an Improved Familiar - the PCs have been hired by the parents to track down the stolen dragon - and arrive after the egg has been sold, and hatched.

[TheThan]

Dragon egg was stolen - sold to a spellcasting princess who wants an Improved Familiar - the PCs have been hired by the parents to track down the stolen dragon - and arrive after the egg has been sold, and hatched.

I was thinking more like the dragon kidnapped the princess and found out she was more than he could handle.

[Ruslan]

I was thinking more like the dragon kidnapped the princess and found out she was more than he could handle.

Take a look at The Ransom of Red Chief by O. Henry for inspiration.

[ArcanaFire]

-Something is poisoning the town water supply. The party goes into the sewer to investigate and finds a monster down there that they can fight (or maybe persuade to leave if you have that kind of party).

-A layman needs a translation made of an old scroll he bought off of a traveler.

-The prince's displacer beast is stuck in a tree.

[BoardPep]

Rumors have been spreading of a gambler in town who is apparently cheating at games of chance. But nobody can figure out how he does it.

[CombatBunny]

1) A wild fox approaches the PCs and speaks to them “Hey you, this way quick!”. Whenever the PCs get behind, the fox will go back to them and tell them “This way, quick!”

The fox was trained by a group of bandits to lure innocents into the woods and assault them, but they lost it some time ago. Now the fox just wanders around doing its daily business, but whenever he finds a group of travelers, it makes them follow him to wherever he goes.

2) The PC’s are sleeping at the inn, when suddenly they are awakened by a group of ants that have climbed to the blankets. As soon as the PCs wake up, the ants make their best effort to communicate that they come in peace and don’t mean any harm.

The ants are in fact ant-sized formians whose queen has been squashed by the town’s sheriff while he was having a walk. The formians tried to dialogue with him, only to find more of their numbers being squashed. Now they ask for the PCs to help them bring him to justice, and if they succeed, they are willing to pay them one million gold coins (ant-sized coins) or have them as grateful allies who can help them with favours in the future.

3) An overwhelmed man approaches the PCs and tells them that he can no longer endure his own knowledge and thus he seeks to end his life. A moment ago he was about to jump from a cliff, when he saw the PCs walking and he got a vision in which they would find a horrible death this same day, if they don't follow his advice. He wants to help them to avoid this horrible fate as his last act of goodwill before saying goodbye.

He claims that he can see through all the threads of destiny, and so he can understand how an action as insignificant as smoking a pipe or scratching their heads can lead to other consequences that will trigger other consequences that could ultimately result in a glorious fate or a miserable doom (to prove his claims, he will make some improbable predictions that will prove true).

If they accept his help, he will tease the party with things like “Don’t eat your rations; that will trigger a domino effect that will lead you to the horrible fate I spoke before. The only way to avoid that is that I eat your meal for today, all by myself”.

And other things like “We must wash ourselves immediately; we have breathed a deadly spore that will lead us to a horrible dead. The water can counter its effect”. If the man manages to do so, he won’t strip from his clothes, but he will burn the PCs instead in a pyre. “It was absolutely necessary. As for me, don’t worry for me, I’m already doomed”.

The man is not lying (at least consciously) and he isn’t under the effect of any spell. He does have more knowledge than what his human brain can endure but he is also deeply tainted with madness. Some time ago he made a deal with a Sphynx that he couldn’t keep, and so the angry Sphynx punished him by looking at him right at his eyes with its powerful Sphynx gaze, and with that act she transmitted him all the mysteries of the universe (or at least a great deal of them). His human mind couldn’t resist such knowledge and he instantly felt into madness. From that day on his life has been a constant torture struggling with his new gained insight and his utter insanity.

[shad0wfunk]

A merchant hires the group to kill an assassin. Turns out the assassin is the merchant's brother and he wants him dead so the merchant is the only one on their mother's will.

Really any side quest from the Fable series would be amusing

[nedz]

Little T
Party meet a large beetle like creature, well about 6 inches long. It attacks — splat, eventually, but regenerates — repeatedly. Turns out that it's a Tarrasque from another material plane, which differs from the PC's material plane in terms of scale.

[IntelectPaladin]

Well, here are a few of my ideas. I have no idea how they will go over, but i hope they are mildly entertaining:

A gnome has challenged a half-orc to a drinking contest, and requests the party's help.

The town's magical mascot escaped from his cage, on the day of the festival.

An assassin wants the party to help him fake his death, so he can quit his job.

The mage guild is complaining about how a cook accidentally made a wedding cake sentient, and let it escape.
Help or harm, It should be intresting.


Thats all i have, for now, But i may think up more later.
I hope they work out for you!

[DragonBaneDM]

These are awesome! I've got a few more:

The party is tasked with collecting "protection money"' for a local thieves guild that they've befriended. The shopkeepers they're sent to collect from come from such a neutral good upbringing that they don't quite understand, think the PCs are starving, and make them all dinner because they think they must be desperate to try to steal.

A baby dragon insists that the dungeon that the PCs are in is its territory, and by entering it they are now enslaved to him/her. The dragon runs if they try to attack, but tasks the PCs to clear out the rest of the dungeon. Now, the PCs were going to do this anyway, but now they have a tiny, adorable/annoying patron who checks in on them in between encounters.

A local girl's pet kitty has gone missing. She describes it as having two tentacles, dark black fur, cold green eyes, and killing for pleasure. It's a young displacer beast, and it's out in the middle of a park that no one's gone to because people who have haven't come back. It's not a big deal for the PCs to knock out or restrain, but for townsfolk it's a pretty big danger.

The party is hired to hunt down and capture a gelatinous decahedron in a giant, person sized bottle. It's basically a gelatinous cube, but without the acid. Honestly the thing has no natural defenses besides LOOKING like a very dangerous dungeon monster. It actually might be some sort of harmless mimic?

I should really have a works cited page here, my DM came up with a lot of what I'm sharing, but I know he doesn't get to post too often, and they're REALLY good ideas for sharing.

Thanks for posting guys! I especially liked Crazy Hassan and the assassin who wants to feign his death, though I think I'm going to reinvent that as a retired supervillain sorcerer.

[goto124]

A baby dragon insists that the dungeon that the PCs are in is its territory, and by entering it they are now enslaved to him/her. The dragon runs if they try to attack, but tasks the PCs to clear out the rest of the dungeon. Now, the PCs were going to do this anyway, but now they have a tiny, adorable/annoying patron who checks in on them in between encounters.

Is that a princess dragon?

[DragonBaneDM]

Is that a princess dragon?

Is Zilargo ruled by fascist gnomes?

[Brendanicus]

how about a dragon that needs to be saved from the princess.

A dragon is distraught that a princess has stolen three of her eggs, who have since hatched under the princess's care. All three dragons believe the princess to be their mother. Oddly enough, despite being the ruler of a large kingdom and having three dragons under her command, the princess doesn't use the resources at her command, content to muck around with tedious local politics instead of reaching her true potential.

[Shadowsend]

Another one from Fable, two blathering idiots stole a book of incredible magical power. Thinking it was a cookbook they read a "recipe" on the last page, re-animating the souls of the dead who are now rampaging/cavorting/partying (complete with ghostly inebriation) through the town's/city's graveyard.

[DragonBaneDM]

Another one from Fable, two blathering idiots stole a book of incredible magical power. Thinking it was a cookbook they read a "recipe" on the last page, re-animating the souls of the dead who are now rampaging/cavorting/partying (complete with ghostly inebriation) through the town's/city's graveyard.

I really like this!

[Rockoe10]

If any of u have read or seen Harry Potter, those are loaded with short missions and puzzles.

-Given a mystery to solve
-Search the library for clues
-Complete the task that would normally require a skillful and drawn out battle, but after some research, even children can complete it

[goto124]

Should Ten Minute Quests be railroady?

And what if the party doesn't search for clues? Or otherwise fails to find them? Do they get the "skillful and drawn out battle"?