Elves play pipes while the goblins sing

[cyrano]

For those creative lot among you....
Players in my 7th Sea game are being sent on a quest to allow them to enter the Summer Country, home of the fairies and piskies.
I'm looking for an appropriate quest, and turn to those of you who are not in my game and perhaps have a mean streak in you to offer me suggestions.
My two main qualifications:
It should sound like something you would encounter in a fairy tale of some stripe.
If it would benefit a pragmatic, somewhat otherworldly Scottish family who is setting the quest, that would be especially good.
My players are warned--clicking on comments may reveal spoilers.

Comments

[drastic.livejournal.com]

Pragmatism meets fairy tales, hmm? A pragmatic fellow can't go wrong with a good chunk of money. Everyone knows that if you manage to get to the end of a rainbow, you'll find treasure--but the problem is, you can't quite get there because the rainbow keeps running away.

So it stands to reason that what you need is some sort of leash that can snare the end of a rainbow and hold it in place long enough for enterprising folks to get to the end of and claim the treasure there. Getting that sort of leash is tricky, of course. It has to be sewn together from the threads from a frayed end of a broken anchor rope of a sunken galley, soaked in the blood of a truly just murder, and things of that nature.

Adjust according to how fantastical/realistic the game's running at, and that seems like a decent leaping point.

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

Oo. I like this idea. You are a Johnny On the Spot, aren't you? (:

[drastic.livejournal.com]

I have my moments. :)

Plus, there's a variety of hooks in there for future bits as needed--for instance, what the heck happens to mortal economies when faerie gold starts circulating through them? I've no idea, but I figure you can go in all sorts of directions with possible answers from grim(me, the bros.) to surreal to uplifting to comedy to all points in between.

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

Exactly one of the things I planned to bring up--or at least what happens when the rainbows start disappearing/going extinct and a certain Scottish family suddenly has a lot of gold at their disposal?