Post-apocalyptic side quest ideas

How post-apocalyptic are we talking here?
>The Apocalypse was a few years ago and most survivors are barely crawling out of the rubble
>The Apocalypse was a decade or more ago; human survivors are banding together into tribes
>The Apocalypse was a century ago; the older generation remember their grandparents telling the story of the Fall,
>The Apocalypse was centuries ago. There are tales of how men use to live in the sky and that the ruins were once great cities. A few books and scholars know the truth

Apocalypse was a few years ago, 5-8 to be more specific, society is functioning on a small almost tribal level.

dunno how mystical you want your world to be, but here's a few ideas i'm stealing from books.

>rumors swirl about a village where the water is clean, and the land has become fertile again. Some say a local can make plants bloom. Meanwhile, bandits gather, planning to raid the crops and kidnap the villager. (You decide whether or not the villager is a charlatan).

>The oldest man in a village all has a twisted mask of scabs, scars from the apocalypse. A few locals from younger generations have disappeared while out fishing/gathering.
>Investigating reveals the man, withdrawn from society, has had his scabs crack and fall off. Beneath, his human face has taken on reptilian features. He flees, and the bodies can be found stored in a crawlspace dug out underneath his hovel.

>A woman with a serious drug addiction begs the party to help find her next fix. The only thing she can promise as a reward is a small package that contains thermite, which she acquired but has no use for.

>A scientist uploaded his consciousness to an AI before the apocalypse, with the intent that he'd be able to share useful knowledge to whoever came after. Unfortunately, his AI has all the emotions he had, and just wants to die now that his family is gone and he's trapped in a box.

>There's a horde of slavering wild dogs roaming the countryside. Occasionally, they drag a live child from one of the villages. The remains are never found. Investigation reveals that one of the dogs is a she-wolf with human-like intelligence, and is kidnapping children to raise them as its own so it has some companionship.

Kinda spinballing, but maybe it'll get you started? Might be too far side.

>>54063827

Pretty good ideas, already got the brain pumping ideas. Appreciate the help

>>54063447
Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel might give you some inspiration

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83KB, 702x468px

>a star falls from the sky
>party goes to investigate
>finds a small crater with the "star" in it
>party does not realize that it really is an escape pod from an orbital station
>hatch wide open, astronaut(s) nowhere to be seen OR dead inside OR weird-looking, clad in white puffy clothes figures emerge
Take it away pal. Worked for my group.

>>54063447
> The party stumbles across a small self-sufficient automated manufactory.
>This treasure of the old world is, amazingly enough, still fully functional and could easily manufacture old-world goods should the raw materials be provided.
>Unfortunately the same AI that is keeping it functional won't work for anyone who does not have "proper clearance".

>>54063447

A lot of genuine useful knowledge would be indistinguishable from random bullshit to the average person, pre or post.

Like, some old dude is querying everyone in town, asking if they've seen any fool's gold up in the hills. He is VERY specific he doesn't give a shit about real gold, but he specifically needs fool's gold.

Why? Because Iron Pyrite is the easiest way to the manufacture of sulfuric acid, and THAT is vital to produce other acids and scads of chemicals we currently depend on. Including antibiotics, with sulfa drugs.

Ditto someone trying to collect everyone's piss, or get folks to bring all the soda cans they can find. If you want to test your players throw in actual crackpots, but most of the rebuilding of society stuff is going to sound nuts even when it is sound science and known procedure, just because it's not common knowledge. Someone in the apocalypse probably knows how to find lead ores and turn them into explosive compounds like lead styphenate, which is common in gun primers. But how do you *tell*?

>VAMPIRES
>Crazy cultist murders who just believe they are vampires but still will bite the fuck out of you and drink your blood
>Will kill themselves if exposed to sunlight "to stop the pain"

>>54063492

The timeframe makes a lot of difference.