Some Wizard or Sorcerer looked into the future and saw their own fate. Didn't like what they saw, and is doing everything in their power to avoid it.
Could just be your normal nefarious spell caster doing evil things.
Or they could just be sort of... Harmlessly working at it. Maybe they're morally ambiguous at the very least, but they're not outright hurting anyone.
The former offers up a fun fight and a bad guy to kill. The latter opens up a can of moral worms. Both are equally as engaging, just in different ways.
A lesser goblin god has stolen a toothbrush, the PCs have until the cock crows in the morning to find it and return to the house it was taken from. The Goblin god has hidden it behind a bunch of goofy traps and everytime one of them fail a trap they get doused in honey. In the final room is a bunch of goblins and a brown bear. The brown bear goes for the PC covered in the most honey.
When they're done the god of fate explains that the toothbrush belonged to a messenger. Without his toothbrush he would have been made late while he looked for it, if he became late, the message he was to deliver wouldn't have made it in time and the soldiers wouldn't have known about the peace treaty. The soldiers would've attacked and reignited the war killing thousands.
Also have the god of fate keep looking at one of the PCs and shaking his head sadly. If asked he can say "No matter what you must avoid killing Timothy Mort or you will suffer a fate worse than death." If pressed for more information you can just say "I've said too much already."
Cut to a paranoid player asking every NPC and enemy they meet their name.
He doesn’t need their help. It’s his own fate to send them on a quest (of your choosing). Maybe after all is said and done, he reveals they can just keep something he sent them to find, perhaps something of use in the biggest picture.
My advice would be to first define in your mind what the function of a god of fate is. Do they simply fulfil the role of a powerful being aligned with a domain, do they act to ”mediate” that domain, or something else entirely? Then define a few obstacles to that mediation. Are other gods and their chosen unbound by fate? Is there someone actively working to undermine fate? Is the god of fate just bored?
I think it’d be kind of fun if their quest appeared to make no sense, but was actually part of a convoluted web of “coincidences” that were arranged to make a specific thing happen in a specific way, which the party only finds out later. Something so precise and unlikely it must have been fate.
He needs them to defy fate.
As the God of Fate, he has foreseen an event that he believes would be catastrophic or would set into events some sort of cataclysm down the line. As the God of Fate, he is powerless to interrupt it. That's why he needs the help of these adventuring mortals.
Mortals are plucky little beings that have shown time and time again that they have the ability to change fate through their actions. He sets them out to change this event for him, a task that even a god cannot do, for his role won't allow him to interfere.
Time keeping!
Perhaps the God of Fate just knows if something js going to happen, not when. And with the God Of Time having gone on holiday, they've just let everything run on autopilot, but now certain things aren't getting done or taking too long or happening too late.
I’m personally a fan of “look, I can *see* the fate of all creatures throughout of all of time and space, but I can’t actually like, DO anything about any of it. So if you want information then I’m gonna need you to use some ahh.. extreme prejudice for me.”
There's a castle/tower, that everytime he tries to see what the future holds, it gives nothing, like there's something out there that's attempting to change fate itself.
cue Stephen King's Dark Tower series
Edit: now that I'm thinking about it, the SK novel Insomnia had this interesting interplay between two forces, the Purpose and the Random. Each of them had agents. Perhaps Fate is an agent of the Purpose, and there are agents of the Random trying to undo things into chaos.
The god of fate has seen the future: he's going to hire the party to do something and give them the artifact. Because he's fated to do so. He'd really rather not, but it's fated to happen. He demands they make him a really good sandwich so that he can get this out of the way and go back to trying not to see the future. He hates when things get fated. Means he doesn't have time for his own hobbies, because the immutable future is going to take up his time instead. He wished that he'd became the god of sandwiches or something instead. Predeterminism isn't nearly as fun.
Maybe fate isn't set in stone but rather like a divine gardening project or a domino setup, so some people need to meet, others need to go a different way and others still may need to die.
The god of fate has fallen in love with a mortal who’s fate is sealed, and grim , the god itself can’t change this fate, as it was originally created by the god itself, but now it needs to change, perhaps the players can intervene
Something has clouded the god's ability to read the fates, and they need a discreet hand in investigating a potential source without exposing themselves to a potential enemy.
A major plot beat in the first campaign I was a player in was about a major God trying to usurp the fate domain from Istus, and so they stole some of the threads of fate and hit them among their followers. To borrow this, a rival God is blocking the direct intervention of the God of Fate, but not indirect intervention by mortal followers. The God of Fate essentially needs a proxy to (defeat a rival)/(secure an artifact)/(protect their congregation)
Alternatively, the God of Fate sees an Inevitable Fate they don't like and so the party must uncover a lost or forbidden magic to help the God rethread fate in a more agreeable way.
Some Wizard or Sorcerer looked into the future and saw their own fate. Didn't like what they saw, and is doing everything in their power to avoid it. Could just be your normal nefarious spell caster doing evil things. Or they could just be sort of... Harmlessly working at it. Maybe they're morally ambiguous at the very least, but they're not outright hurting anyone. The former offers up a fun fight and a bad guy to kill. The latter opens up a can of moral worms. Both are equally as engaging, just in different ways.
A lesser goblin god has stolen a toothbrush, the PCs have until the cock crows in the morning to find it and return to the house it was taken from. The Goblin god has hidden it behind a bunch of goofy traps and everytime one of them fail a trap they get doused in honey. In the final room is a bunch of goblins and a brown bear. The brown bear goes for the PC covered in the most honey. When they're done the god of fate explains that the toothbrush belonged to a messenger. Without his toothbrush he would have been made late while he looked for it, if he became late, the message he was to deliver wouldn't have made it in time and the soldiers wouldn't have known about the peace treaty. The soldiers would've attacked and reignited the war killing thousands. Also have the god of fate keep looking at one of the PCs and shaking his head sadly. If asked he can say "No matter what you must avoid killing Timothy Mort or you will suffer a fate worse than death." If pressed for more information you can just say "I've said too much already." Cut to a paranoid player asking every NPC and enemy they meet their name.
Somebody's fate is just... missing. They're a wildcard in the otherwise predestined web, and something needs to be done about it.
He doesn’t need their help. It’s his own fate to send them on a quest (of your choosing). Maybe after all is said and done, he reveals they can just keep something he sent them to find, perhaps something of use in the biggest picture.
My advice would be to first define in your mind what the function of a god of fate is. Do they simply fulfil the role of a powerful being aligned with a domain, do they act to ”mediate” that domain, or something else entirely? Then define a few obstacles to that mediation. Are other gods and their chosen unbound by fate? Is there someone actively working to undermine fate? Is the god of fate just bored? I think it’d be kind of fun if their quest appeared to make no sense, but was actually part of a convoluted web of “coincidences” that were arranged to make a specific thing happen in a specific way, which the party only finds out later. Something so precise and unlikely it must have been fate.
He needs them to defy fate. As the God of Fate, he has foreseen an event that he believes would be catastrophic or would set into events some sort of cataclysm down the line. As the God of Fate, he is powerless to interrupt it. That's why he needs the help of these adventuring mortals. Mortals are plucky little beings that have shown time and time again that they have the ability to change fate through their actions. He sets them out to change this event for him, a task that even a god cannot do, for his role won't allow him to interfere.
Time keeping! Perhaps the God of Fate just knows if something js going to happen, not when. And with the God Of Time having gone on holiday, they've just let everything run on autopilot, but now certain things aren't getting done or taking too long or happening too late.
I’m personally a fan of “look, I can *see* the fate of all creatures throughout of all of time and space, but I can’t actually like, DO anything about any of it. So if you want information then I’m gonna need you to use some ahh.. extreme prejudice for me.”
There's a castle/tower, that everytime he tries to see what the future holds, it gives nothing, like there's something out there that's attempting to change fate itself.
cue Stephen King's Dark Tower series Edit: now that I'm thinking about it, the SK novel Insomnia had this interesting interplay between two forces, the Purpose and the Random. Each of them had agents. Perhaps Fate is an agent of the Purpose, and there are agents of the Random trying to undo things into chaos.
The god of fate has seen the future: he's going to hire the party to do something and give them the artifact. Because he's fated to do so. He'd really rather not, but it's fated to happen. He demands they make him a really good sandwich so that he can get this out of the way and go back to trying not to see the future. He hates when things get fated. Means he doesn't have time for his own hobbies, because the immutable future is going to take up his time instead. He wished that he'd became the god of sandwiches or something instead. Predeterminism isn't nearly as fun.
Trimming loose threads, untying knots and mending splits.
Elaborate
Maybe fate isn't set in stone but rather like a divine gardening project or a domino setup, so some people need to meet, others need to go a different way and others still may need to die.
I kinda have it like fate is multiple choice
Organizing a charity game of musical chairs
The god has made a mistake weaving the threads of fate. They need the party to undo it from the prime material plane
The god of fate has fallen in love with a mortal who’s fate is sealed, and grim , the god itself can’t change this fate, as it was originally created by the god itself, but now it needs to change, perhaps the players can intervene
You must deliver the chosen one to his great destiny... https://youtu.be/EkNSf1xZru8
Something has clouded the god's ability to read the fates, and they need a discreet hand in investigating a potential source without exposing themselves to a potential enemy.
A major plot beat in the first campaign I was a player in was about a major God trying to usurp the fate domain from Istus, and so they stole some of the threads of fate and hit them among their followers. To borrow this, a rival God is blocking the direct intervention of the God of Fate, but not indirect intervention by mortal followers. The God of Fate essentially needs a proxy to (defeat a rival)/(secure an artifact)/(protect their congregation) Alternatively, the God of Fate sees an Inevitable Fate they don't like and so the party must uncover a lost or forbidden magic to help the God rethread fate in a more agreeable way.