Needed: 12 'impossible' tasks (my players keep out!)

[Heathen72]

I need a bit of help please.
I am running a faerie tale style game in a few days time, and I am looking for 12 epic tasks for a party of amazing characters to complete.

The party will be trying to help a young lad save the life of his true love - a young girl of who has been trapped by the cruel Mrs Thimblewinter (a old crone in the Baba Yaga mould) The party of adventurers (all one-shot characters) won't be uber-high level, but they <i>will</i> be able to take one skill at 'epic' levels. This means they will be able to buy this skill at half price and take it as high as they want. If they take it high enough they will be able to achieve 'mythical' results with those skills.

All I need now are the 12 'tasks' the boy (and his friends) will need to complete before Mrs Thimblewinter will release his love. They need to seem 'impossible' but ultimately achievable. This maybe because there is a loophole in the the way a task is worded, maybe because they use their skills in really cool ways, or maybe simply because they are very brave.

Indiana's trials in the Last Crusade are a good example of the sort of test I am after (he had a absurdly high dodge, astonishing knowledge of the arcane and loads of guts in his corner). Baron Munchausen's companions are good examples of what the party could be like with ridiculous skills. Neil Gaiman's Stardust (or any collection of faerie tales) will give you a good idea of the feel I am going for.

I've had a few ideas myself...

One idea is a series of barriers that need to be passed. The first can only be broached by someone pure of heart (maybe a paladin, maybe even someone with indistinguishable alignment cast on them?) The second will prevent the passage of anything that makes a sound (a mythical sneak role?) The third will only allow somone free of thought to pass (maybe they throw someone unconscious through the barrier - only to find that on the other side is a horrible (and hungry) beastie. Once each barrier is passed, a lever or some such device can be pulled to allow the others through, of course.

I have couple of other ideas, but I don't want to taint your thinking with them just yet.

Any other thoughts?

 

[Hypersmurf]

A quick run through the skill list:

Appraise: Pick the correct item. See The Dark Crystal or, again, Last Crusade for examples.

Balance/Climb/Jump/Swim: Cross a bridge made from a single strand of hair, climb a sheer glass wall, or similar physical challenges.

Bluff/Diplomacy/Sense Motive/Gather Information: Some sort of interview test.

Disable Device/Open Lock/Escape Artist: Some mechanical barrier to be bypassed.

Disguise/Forgery or Hide/Move Silently/Pick Pockets: Get past the fearsome bodyguards who cannot be defeated, who guard the door with the magic lock that cannot be picked.

Handle Animal: Swim through a tank filled with filled with man-eating great white sharks, deadly electric eels, ravenous piranha, bone-crushing alligators, and perhaps most frightening of all, the king of the jungle, one ferocious lion!

Intuit Direction/Search/Survival/Spot: Navigate through an impossible maze.

-Hyp.

 

[Mark]

spunkrat - Email me please...

 

[Eternalknight]

You could always just rip-off the twelve labours of Hercules...

 

[Heathen72]

Not this time...

You could always just rip-off the twelve labours of Hercules...

Funnily enough, the reason I chose twelve tasks is unrelated to the Hercules legend. I almost changed the number to avoid the association. Besides, most of Hercules tasks were a little to large in scale for what I have in mind.

 

[Heathen72]

Balance/Climb/Jump/Swim: Cross a bridge made from a single strand of hair, climb a sheer glass wall, or similar physical challenges.
-Hyp.

Thanks 'Smurf. I like the 'bridge of hair' one in particular. Are there other ways to get around it?

 

[Hypersmurf]

Thanks 'Smurf. I like the 'bridge of hair' one in particular. Are there other ways to get around it?

Are we assuming access to magic, or not? There's a dozen plus spells you could use, and numerous magic items.

If it were a Russian folk story, the hero would have saved a mouse from some dire situation earlier in the tale, and now that would prove to have been a clever decision, since the mouse can easily scurry across the bridge without breaking the hair, grab the key on the other side, and scurry back.

-Hyp.

 

[Heathen72]

Are we assuming access to magic, or not? There's a dozen plus spells you could use, and numerous magic items.

If it were a Russian folk story, the hero would have saved a mouse from some dire situation earlier in the tale, and now that would prove to have been a clever decision, since the mouse can easily scurry across the bridge without breaking the hair, grab the key on the other side, and scurry back.

-Hyp.

I quite like the mouse idea. I'm thinking of seeding the earlier challenges with seemingly unimportant 'throwaway' details (a trapped mouse, a rusty yet magical item) that could help the party later on if they pick up on them.

Re: spellcasters, it's up to the players what class they play, but there is little doubt that a spellcaster could make his or her way around some of these situations. Still, the adventure will only last a day - how long before they run out of spells?

 

[Hypersmurf]

The mouse idea would be cool. I could seed the earlier challenges with seemingly unimportant 'throwaway' details (a trapped mouse, for instance) that could help the party later on, if they were the kind of people to,say, help the mouse.
Cool.

There's plenty of stories like that - I've seen a few of them in books of Russian folk tales, but I suspect you'll find them in any culture - where a hero collects a gang of unlikely followers with unusual talents... and each follower happens to match a particular obstacle.

Drop by a library, and have a browse through the Folklore section for some ideas

Regarding spells - it depends if they're carrying lots of scrolls

Sorcerers don't run out so fast... but they often don't carry many utility spells

-Hyp.

 

[Heathen72]

There's plenty of stories like that - I've seen a few of them in books of Russian folk tales, but I suspect you'll find them in any culture - where a hero collects a gang of unlikely followers with unusual talents... and each follower happens to match a particular obstacle.

Drop by a library, and have a browse through the Folklore section for some ideas

Regarding spells - it depends if they're carrying lots of scrolls

Sorcerers don't run out so fast... but they often don't carry many utility spells

-Hyp.

I've got a couple of books of faerie tales in the house, but I am a little time-poor at the moment - I barely have time to write up the game (I'm doing it, right now!). Besides, I am looking for is a variety of ideas - so that each challenge breaks the routine and there is little repetition. I'm hoping that some other minds will get me looking at the game from a different angle. (You've already done that, 'Smurf - Thanks )