For this third installment of an apparently ongoing seasonal series (see 2023 and 2024), here are a few more examples of unusual gifts, awards, and compensation for the heroes that come with their own built-in story and adventure hooks. When gold, gems, and magic start to lose their luster for experienced adventurers (and even more-experienced players), take advantage of any of these unique bequeathments suitably given as thanks for an adventure well-done.
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Felt Cult, Might Delete Later
As a reward for putting an end to a depraved cult, the characters are gifted with a powerful relic the cult were planning to use to fuel a dread ritual. The item functions perfectly to produce whatever other magic you want to bestow upon the party. But over time, the characters discover that the item’s connection to the cult has suffused it with magic that attracts would-be cultists — who all end up treating the unwitting characters as their cult overlords. Initially, NPCs drawn to the relic might appear to simply be followers and sidekicks brought into the party under the game’s usual rules. But over time, those followers begin to engage in stranger and stranger behavior, treating the heroes less as employers and benefactors and more as quasireligious figures. If things go unchecked, one or more ambitious followers might ramp up their erratic activities — with the characters perhaps discovering that the newly active cult they’ve been investigating is secretly led by them!
Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes
The characters are gifted with a magical talisman that promises to let them overcome the fickle notions of fate. A certain number of times (whether limited overall, once per month, or what have you), a character wielding the talisman can undo one recent event, dictating the manner in which the event should have unfolded (subject to any limitations imposed by the GM). But what the characters don’t realize at the outset is that fate is complicated, and the single change asked for inevitably comes with a number of other unexpected changes to complicate the campaign. The characters might discover that they have close ties to NPCs they’ve never heard of, have lost or gained magic items, owe money for services they don’t recall requesting, have inexplicably changed their appearances or names, and so forth. Figuring out the scope and scale of the changes can introduce a steady stream of side quests each time the talisman is used — or perhaps the talisman begins to unravel fate whether it is used or not.
Haute Cuisine
As a reward from a powerful noble or royal, the characters are entitled to eat free for life at the finest restaurant in the land. But the head chef of this legendary establishment is secretly an archfey whose meals bestow magical benefits in exchange for service. Depending on how the players like their obligations set up, the heroes might partake of fine dining and learn of the meal’s magical benefits, then find themselves compelled to undertake a dangerous mission to make use of those benefits. Or the archfey chef might reveal a mission the characters can undertake, offering the magical meal beforehand as a down payment on rewards to come. Either way, eating at the restaurant or magically teleporting in a take-out order might become a regular source of plot hooks and valuable magical benefits as the campaign unfolds.
Investment Opportunity
As an offered reward or a side-effect benefit of a successful adventure, the characters receive an ownership stake in a successful business or mercantile venture — a profitable inn or tavern, a merchant company, a chain of businesses, and so forth. But even as the venture turns over steady profits to fund the party’s adventuring, the characters don’t realize that the business has secret connections to a criminal guild, a powerful supernatural figure, a secret school of magic, a clandestine organization of freedom fighters, or some combination thereof. Wherever the characters’ connection to the business is known, mistaken identity and expectations abound.
Clothes Make the Hero
Characters in an urban or socially-focused campaign might receive the gift of fine custom clothing, crafted by the most reputable tailor in the land. But what no one realizes at the outset is that this tailor’s crafting carries an eldritch essence, causing the clothing to act as sapient magic items focused on increasing the characters’ renown. As long as the clothing is worn, the characters find themselves invited to exclusive parties and engagements, accidentally bumping into powerful people, and just generally getting ahead socially. But at the same time, powerful nobles, wealthy criminals, and corrupt political figures grow suspicious of the characters’ inexplicable social rise — and attempt to stop it.
Sing-Along
Whether gifted as a commission by a grateful noble or organization, or created as a spontaneous offering by a skald whose folk were done a service by the party, the characters are immortalized in song as the subjects of a heroic ballad. However, the song proves even catchier than expected, quickly spreading from town to town, loved by young and old, and sung in every tavern — to the point where the characters are suddenly well known in every region they visit and every settlement they pass through. Endless pleas for aid accompany their musical notoriety, alongside challenges by villains and would-be heroes looking to make names for themselves. Undoing the effects of the song might require some skillful social engineering — or the discovery that the original creation of the song was some kind of magical setup meant to hamstring the characters’ adventuring potential.