Contest Time!
The players are exploring a strange pyramid that is clearly alien (and they now think is some sort of zoo). They walk into a room with stars and a solar eclipse depicted planetarium-style far above their heads and in the middle of the room is this god, speaking to them. Three of the players pass language checks and understand that it is speaking in the language of the Aztecs:
"Uh...we choose LIFE!"
"Your wish is granted."
All players must now make saving throws as the god disintegrates into light and flows into the eclipse. All of the male PCs pass, and the single female PC fails. The result is a pregnancy near the end of the first trimester.
What is the deal with this baby when it's born? What happens?
I will include all of your suggestions on a giant table and roll to see what happens to my poor player's character. The person who I roll will also win their choice of one of these prizes (shipped to wherever you want):
The Undercroft #5
The Undercroft #6
Fire on the Velvet Horizon
I'll start with some of the obvious suggestions:
1) It's the antichrist (The Omen, House of the Devil)
2) A cult wants the baby (Rosemary's Baby)
3) The baby is alien in nature and will burst forth violently (Alien)
4) It's an exact clone of the player character except it will be exactly half their size.
5) It's an exact clone of the player character except it will be double their size.
6...
It's an exact clone of the character, which bursts forth violently (Alien), already pregnant. 3 months later the cycle repeats (5% chance to roll again on this chart, 95% it's the same result.
ReplyDeleteIt's a multiple birth. Each baby is a planet apart from the last born, which is a sun. They are baby sized and as they enter the world, fly off towards the planetarium.
ReplyDeleteTwins! One will be known as the avatar of Mictlantecuhtli, god of Death. The other will be known as the avatar of Quetzalcoatl, god of Life. They are identical in appearance, and can bring hideous death with a glance or cause an eruption of riotous life with the same, respectively. They will be both be colicky, tantrum-prone brats. Hopefully you'll be able to stay on their good side, all while one one kills everything that irritates it and the other grants life to everything that holds it's attention. They're also hungry, what do you feed these things?
ReplyDeleteA living double-headed serpent, remarkably similar to the statue given to Cortes. It will be very affectionate and protective towards its mother, but will have a very strong prey drive towards other mammals. It eats a live mammal every few days causing quite a mess, but also sheds a skin of real turquoise flakes as it grows larger afterwards. At some point it will reach adult size and slither away to pursue a mate, but who knows when or how big that is?
ReplyDeleteA crystal baby skull, which rapidly ages into an adult sized crystal skull over the next hour. If this is placed onto a headless body it will seize control of it, but what it will do from there is unknown. This is all revealed in hideous dreams, and telepathic banter once it learns to speak. It also promise unspecified curses of vast power and unknown actuality if it is not obeyed. It is not only condescending and pretentious, but has a very irritating voice as well.
ReplyDeleteThe baby is born with multiple faces around the head. Each one is identical to one of the male player characters in the party. Each face continually speaks, telling each PC's innermost secrets, especially those that the PC does not want the rest of the party to know. It never shuts up. And any time a PC tries to do something in secret, "his" face reveals what the PC is trying to do.
ReplyDeleteIf the baby is attacked, the "mother also suffers damage, even if the mother is the one inflicting the damage.
The baby is born with multiple faces around the head. Each one is identical to one of the male player characters in the party. Each face continually speaks, telling each PC's innermost secrets, especially those that the PC does not want the rest of the party to know. It never shuts up. And any time a PC tries to do something in secret, "his" face reveals what the PC is trying to do.
ReplyDeleteIf the baby is attacked, the "mother also suffers damage, even if the mother is the one inflicting the damage.
The baby can never be born naturally and will remain at this state of pregnancy. It could be removed artificially, if desired. While pregnant, the PC suffers the physical effects of pregnancy but has any knowledge that might be associated with someone of the Aztec culture, including the ability to speak the ancient Aztec language.
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Delete[I might be breaking contest guidelines here, so feel free to disregard it]. Not just a female PC, but ALL PCs present become pregnant. The child gestates in the colon, feeding on what's soon-to-be excrement, tapeworms and other parasites. The baby resembles a maggot, with tiny T-Rex arms that end in vicious claws. Its face is subsumed into its body - just wet slits for a nose, a sucking-hole for a mouth, and no eyes. The PC suffers from septicemia as the baby's claws tear at the lining of the colon. When the child is ready to emerge, the star Sirius swells in size and casts rippling rainbow light across the world. The child rips its way out of the PC's anus, doing 2d6 hp of damage. It then emits a high-pitched scream and burrows into the earth. At the next heliacal rising of Sirius, the thing emerges from the ground as...something else.
ReplyDeleteNot a baby, but a large soft egg sac is delivered. The outer skin of the sac has a red and black marbled like coloration. The incubation period for this egg is 4 weeks during which time the soft sac hardens into a large shell. When the child breaks out it is a humanoid baby form with a young Goat like head covered in white hair that slowly turns black over the next 2 months. It has only one eye and it is hermaphroditic.
ReplyDeleteThe baby weighs 15 pounds when it hatches and grows by 5% each day for the first 2 months, by which time if it has been adequately fed, it will be over 250 pounds and about 6.5 feet tall. The baby cannot walk and needs to be carried for the first month. It also needs to be breastfed the first 3 weeks, but a single human cannot create enough milk to satisfy it. After this period it can eat solid food. This will be realized when it starts chewing hard on nipples, biting off uders if the party is lucky enough to find a farm to raid for dairy cows. It will cry out when hungry and, once it is eating solid food, if unfed for a day it will attack the party in an attempt to eat one of them, unless there are animals it can catch or other humans. Eating the party is a last resort of hunger.
When it hatched, the baby channeled the voice of Tzitzimitl stating, "You have chosen Life, you are condemned to nurturing Life. Had you chosen Death, you would not have this burden, you could have left it to die where it was born. You're life now depends on this child's survival. If you fail, I will return to devour you alive.' If the party abandoned the egg sac when it was first delivered or cut it open and killed the child they will meet Tzitzimitl on the anniversary of their first meeting and Tzitizimil will not be happy.
After 5 months the child will be fully grown at 8 feet tall, 650 pounds of muscle, have full goat head and horns. It will have a voracious appetite and will frequently stray from the party. It will protect and defend the party against any type of attacks without any thoughts of it's own safety (which is actually extraordinarily dangerous for the party, since they must protect it).
As the child of a god, it exists in multiple dimensions. Consquently there are forces/spirits from outside this realm that are interested in the child. Demonic forces/presence begin to be felt by the party around 6 months. By this time the child has full command of language and often speaks as if it is talking to others who aren't physically present. The child also has moments of omniscience. It sometimes detects danger long before it would be discovered, has sudden insight into where something can be found (despite distance), or suddenly blurts out something that is will happen in the future.
Of course, any stranger spotting the child is upset and believes it is a demonic creature that must be destroyed.
On the eve of it's seven month anniversary of birth, it walks away into the stars and night sky. That night Tzitzimitl appears in a dream to all of the surviving party and bestows something outrageously beneficial to each. The GM has 6 months of game time to determine what would be most appropriate for each PC.
I rolled a d7 and rolled a 2. Simon Burns, you're the winner! Which book would you like?
ReplyDelete