Looking for an odd "mission" from the fae

[Haru]

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)

Fomor anyone?

). He would have been attacked anyway, but this way he can defend himself and kill the creature for the fae.

[ery13]

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.

[tetrasodium]

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".

[Arcane]

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.

[computerking]

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.

[Haru]

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).

[Blackblade]

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. 

[Set Abominae]

Recover the elfin magic from Keebler. 

[tetrasodium]

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

[SpoonR]

Bring me... a shrubbery! Or a perfect donut (yah, they contracted it out  ).

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.

[Quantus]

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) 

[tetrasodium]

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.  

[Sh33p]

Recover a certain lawn gnome locked in an iron safe.

The safe is in Marcone's office.

[Quasispike]

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.