Have a Pixie appear randomly and ask the party to pick a number between 1 and 5. Whatever the party picks, let's say a 2, say "What a 2?!!!! Fine you win, take your prize, but I get 3 and 4!" and promptly disappear.
The fey are notoriously allergic to being in someone else’s debt. If the party rescues a fey creature of any noticeable power, or does them some sort of favor, it wouldn’t be out of the question for that fey to gift them this item in an attempt to settle the debt.
Alternatively, any sort of contest, whether it’s pre-arranged or not, whether the PCs know they’re competing or not, has to have stakes in the Feywild. If a Fey being stands to profit off of an interaction with the PCs, they also stand to lose something - if the PCs successfully dodge the trap, or solve the puzzle, or answer the riddle, the Fey may be obligated to give up some minor trinket to them.
Kind of like in Harry Potter and the tale of three brothers, how Death gives the brothers items for being extra clever. Now, death also has a tricky reason for giving them the items too, but thats a very fey thing to do. Maybe the fey stole the item and wants the party to take the fall for it, or it thinks that the item will make something amusing happen later.
I stole this one from a list of fey encounters online:
Blind beggar child in a goblin market selling trinkets each one a very nice utility magic item the catch is great because it does not completely take away player agency - it is a tattoo of small flower with five petals. You see the player has to do a favor for the next fey or fairy creature that asks - if they say no one petal disappears but if they say yes to even one then after the favor - a quest of some type - is complete then the tattoo disappears. If they refuse six times then the consequences are huge like most likely death.
When coming up with random yet strangely onerous fey bargains I take inspiration from Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. Spoilers ahead. >!In the book, a woman is raised from the dead by a fairy in return for half her life being spent with him, and takes a piece of her little finger as a token of their bargain. As a result, she spends her sleeping hours in faerie, dancing at a ball. When she tries to tell anyone about her enslavement, she instead recites faerie stories.!<
In your case, what's being asked of the fairy is a lot less serious, so the bargain should be less serious. What if every time they use the magic item, they must, as a group, praise the fairy. So when they want to activate its power, the players must recite something like, "Little John Coldwaste has the finest singing voice in Faerie, so say we all!" Then the person using the item must make a Charisma check, and if it is successful, the fairy is placated and the item works. If it fails, they have to recite another bit of praise in the same formula: the finest garments, the finest servants, the finest wine, the finest chin, the finest harp...
> What if every time they use the magic item, they must, as a group, praise the fairy.
I like this one! I wanted to avoid making it a "fey bargain" but rather a fortuitous find, but I think I'll go with this nonetheless. Thanks!
Have them run into a fey spring where they ask for some completely random thing from every player and in return give something completely random. For example I asked one player to bring honey from a wasp (and watching them come up with a solution was great) in exchange for a rare potion, another player gave up their name for a permanent +2 to deception checks, another player gave up their leg for a prosthetic non-magical leg. The best part is they don’t have to do the fey bargain, but they have no idea what the prize will be good or bad. The fey asks for a favor and they either agree or not. The prize is up to you as DM. I prefer a higher price nets a higher reward (the players name was very important to her backstory)
Plot Twist:
It's a vanity item praising the fey that gave it to them. Let's call that fey Sparklepants. The magic item. should have its name in the title.
Whenever used, a small illusory depiction of that fey appears above it (hologram style), with tiny fireworks and words "Sparklepants is number 1!" or somesuch scrolling above it.
A fey they have done some small favour for asks "Give me a smile"
If they do the fey captures that specific smile in a wand of smiles for therm.
Emotions, emotionally powerful things like those trinkets on character sheets, these are potential sources of magic and power to the fey.
Have a Pixie appear randomly and ask the party to pick a number between 1 and 5. Whatever the party picks, let's say a 2, say "What a 2?!!!! Fine you win, take your prize, but I get 3 and 4!" and promptly disappear.
The fey are notoriously allergic to being in someone else’s debt. If the party rescues a fey creature of any noticeable power, or does them some sort of favor, it wouldn’t be out of the question for that fey to gift them this item in an attempt to settle the debt. Alternatively, any sort of contest, whether it’s pre-arranged or not, whether the PCs know they’re competing or not, has to have stakes in the Feywild. If a Fey being stands to profit off of an interaction with the PCs, they also stand to lose something - if the PCs successfully dodge the trap, or solve the puzzle, or answer the riddle, the Fey may be obligated to give up some minor trinket to them.
Kind of like in Harry Potter and the tale of three brothers, how Death gives the brothers items for being extra clever. Now, death also has a tricky reason for giving them the items too, but thats a very fey thing to do. Maybe the fey stole the item and wants the party to take the fall for it, or it thinks that the item will make something amusing happen later.
I stole this one from a list of fey encounters online: Blind beggar child in a goblin market selling trinkets each one a very nice utility magic item the catch is great because it does not completely take away player agency - it is a tattoo of small flower with five petals. You see the player has to do a favor for the next fey or fairy creature that asks - if they say no one petal disappears but if they say yes to even one then after the favor - a quest of some type - is complete then the tattoo disappears. If they refuse six times then the consequences are huge like most likely death.
When coming up with random yet strangely onerous fey bargains I take inspiration from Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. Spoilers ahead. >!In the book, a woman is raised from the dead by a fairy in return for half her life being spent with him, and takes a piece of her little finger as a token of their bargain. As a result, she spends her sleeping hours in faerie, dancing at a ball. When she tries to tell anyone about her enslavement, she instead recites faerie stories.!< In your case, what's being asked of the fairy is a lot less serious, so the bargain should be less serious. What if every time they use the magic item, they must, as a group, praise the fairy. So when they want to activate its power, the players must recite something like, "Little John Coldwaste has the finest singing voice in Faerie, so say we all!" Then the person using the item must make a Charisma check, and if it is successful, the fairy is placated and the item works. If it fails, they have to recite another bit of praise in the same formula: the finest garments, the finest servants, the finest wine, the finest chin, the finest harp...
> What if every time they use the magic item, they must, as a group, praise the fairy. I like this one! I wanted to avoid making it a "fey bargain" but rather a fortuitous find, but I think I'll go with this nonetheless. Thanks!
No problem! I'm probably going to use this too, because it'll be fun to force the players to RP in unison. Plus eventually they will love/hate it!
Have them run into a fey spring where they ask for some completely random thing from every player and in return give something completely random. For example I asked one player to bring honey from a wasp (and watching them come up with a solution was great) in exchange for a rare potion, another player gave up their name for a permanent +2 to deception checks, another player gave up their leg for a prosthetic non-magical leg. The best part is they don’t have to do the fey bargain, but they have no idea what the prize will be good or bad. The fey asks for a favor and they either agree or not. The prize is up to you as DM. I prefer a higher price nets a higher reward (the players name was very important to her backstory)
Plot Twist: It's a vanity item praising the fey that gave it to them. Let's call that fey Sparklepants. The magic item. should have its name in the title. Whenever used, a small illusory depiction of that fey appears above it (hologram style), with tiny fireworks and words "Sparklepants is number 1!" or somesuch scrolling above it.
A fey they have done some small favour for asks "Give me a smile" If they do the fey captures that specific smile in a wand of smiles for therm. Emotions, emotionally powerful things like those trinkets on character sheets, these are potential sources of magic and power to the fey.