Welcome to the first installment of Odd Jobs, a series of short adventures prompts for my indie RPG Wyrd Street. You can incorporate these prompts into your Wyrd Street campaign or potentially adapt them to other RPG settings. I’ll be posting these for at least a few months while I celebrate Wyrd Street’s launch. Going to start us off with something seasonally appropriate.
If you haven’t already tried Wyrd Street, don’t forget we have a free starter edition!
A Solstice Gift:
From the job board in the Rose Garden common room:
“Need help with small personal task. Can’t afford to pay much, but it would mean a lot.-Subira Mbogo, the Clinic, Wyrd Street.”
It’s a cold but calm day as the party sets out. The wind has stopped blowing from the bay for once, and a few snowflakes drift down from a slate grey sky.
Subira can be found at the free clinic run by her father in the alleys behind the Rose Garden, Wyrd Street’s bordello. She’s tall but skinny girl of about eighteen years, with dark brown skin and dark hair braided into cornrows.
Subira explains that she wants to get a solstice gift for her sweetheart, Five Snow Blossom, another teen girl living on Wyrd Street. She’s picked a rare flower from the Vaulted Green — the homeland of Five’s people, the Bala — with beautiful violet petals, but she can’t afford to buy one. The Bala herbalist who grows them in this city has instead offered a trade: She’ll give Subira the flower if Subira can provide another rare plant in exchange.
Unfortunately, Subira doesn’t know where to find such a thing, so she’s looking for outside help to find it.
One likely option for a rare plant is Dao Lei, a wealthy merchant in the city’s Wharf District. Dao Lei is known to keep a garden of plants from his homeland of Tiahn. He is also the leader of the Azure Ring, a former merchant guild turned vigilante group protecting the Tiahnese people of the city from the racial violence that has broken out since Tiahn invaded the Free Holds. Dao Lei would likely expect the party to aid the Ring’s interests in some way before he gives up a plant.
The Plague Birds — a group of plague doctors who are part street gang, part corrupt charity, part secret society — may also have rare plants, but they offer nothing for free.
Tips for running the adventure:
Five Snow Blossom is an Iconic Character in Wyrd Street, meaning someone in your party may be playing as her. If so, you may wish to obfuscate Subira’s intentions. Perhaps Subira claims she needs the plant to make medicine for her father’s clinic, then surprises Five at the end of the adventure.
Subira doesn’t have much money, so she’ll have to compensate the party some other way. She might be able to spare some first aid kits from her father’s clinic, or perhaps she could offer to prepare a solstice dinner for the party, granting them the High Spirits Effect and/or restoring Vitality.
Your party will still need money to cover their Upkeep after the adventure, so make sure they find at least 50 silver during the events of the adventure.
Finally, this is a light holiday adventure, so probably don’t pit your party against anything too harrowing. Maybe Dao Lei needs them to chase off some mischievous spirits who’ve taken over one of his warehouses while his people are busy patrolling the streets.
Want more like this?
More adventures like this can be found in Wyrd Street’s Quicksilver War campaign, which includes five Jobs that can be run as part of its story arc or inserted into other campaigns. Available as part of the Wyrd Street complete bundle.
Superior Realities 