An Unusual Pregnancy

[NowhereMan583]

So, in my current game (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?358929-Campaign-Log-Brothels-Archaeology-Mutants-and-Other-Questionable-Elements-(PF)), the players had a more-or-less amicable encounter with a devil. (Specifically a Magaav (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/outsiders/devil/host-greater-magaav), if you're curious.) Short version, one of the players decided that she wanted to sleep with the devil & have a half-fiend child, and due to the influence of a luck-based magic item, I pretty much had to let that happen.

I think it could be pretty cool to give one of the PCs a kid to look after, but I need to make some decisions about the actual pregnancy. Since the mother is a hobgoblin who has been warped and tainted by the Far Realms, and the father is a devil, the biology of the whole situation is pretty abnormal. It's pretty much a given that the child has a good chance of being born as a mass of claws and tentacles, and that will come in time, but I'd like to try and mine the situation for short-term plot hooks as well.

Basically, knowing my players, they're apt to completely forget that the hobgoblin is pregnant if there's nothing going on related to that right at the moment. I feel like the screwed-up biology of the situation has some potential for plot hooks, but I'm drawing a blank right now, so I'd like to ask y'all for your thoughts.

[LibraryOgre]

There's the option to pull a Carol Danvers... in the early 80s, the writers had her impregnated (under much worse circumstances), but then rapidly gave birth to the child, rather than the conventional few months for a hobgoblin. Make it a couple weeks of downtime while she's pregnant, then give them a half-demon child to raise. Something incredibly tough, but needing to learn the ways of the world.

[Mr.Moron]

\hort version, one of the players decided that she wanted to sleep with the devil & have a half-fiend child, and due to the influence of a luck-based magic item, I pretty much had to let that happen.


This seems an utterly bizarre statement. "Hey this kind of off tone" or "Sorry, I really don't feel like going down that path" or "I get where you're going with this, but that's just not a place I wanna take things - so let's just not have a demon pregnancy, OK?" are all valid responses when a player when a player is going for a potential game-bomb like demon pregnancy. But whatever.

Now that it's happened, I suppose where to take it depends on the general tone and the feel of the game. I mean where does this game fall on the spectrum of light and fluffy to grim and dark. Is game taking itself seriously or more just for funsies? Different games demand different responses.

[NowhereMan583]

There's the option to pull a Carol Danvers... in the early 80s, the writers had her impregnated (under much worse circumstances), but then rapidly gave birth to the child, rather than the conventional few months for a hobgoblin. Make it a couple weeks of downtime while she's pregnant, then give them a half-demon child to raise. Something incredibly tough, but needing to learn the ways of the world.

I had planned for the actual pregnancy to not last long -- it's already canon that goblinoids reproduce quickly, and I figure that the child's paternal ancestry might as well speed that up to make sure it happens in time to affect the campaign significantly. It hadn't occurred to me to also speed up the growth of the child, though -- that's a good idea.


This seems an utterly bizarre statement. "Hey this kind of off tone" or "Sorry, I really don't feel like going down that path" or "I get where you're going with this, but that's just not a place I wanna take things - so let's just not have a demon pregnancy, OK?" are all valid responses when a player when a player is going for a potential game-bomb like demon pregnancy. But whatever.

Now that it's happened, I suppose where to take it depends on the general tone and the feel of the game. I mean where does this game fall on the spectrum of light and fluffy to grim and dark. Is game taking itself seriously or more just for funsies? Different games demand different responses.

It's not really off-tone -- it just took me by surprise. What I meant by "I had to let that happen" was "I hadn't anticipated it, it caught me off guard, and I couldn't think of a reason it wouldn't work, especially since the character was under a supernatural luck effect and is more likely to succeed at whatever she's doing; despite the fact that it's unusual in my campaign world for devils to produce half-fiends without a specific purpose in mind, and I hadn't planned for a character to be dealing with pregnancy, it seemed as though the player had good reason to expect success and I had no real reason to deny it." I was just... summarizing.

Not light and fluffy -- it's an evil party, the party face owns a brothel, and one of the party members recently killed a few strangers as part of a misguided plan to eliminate the town curfew. It's serious enough for me to be writing a campaign log (see link in first post) but the actual time at the table involves a lot of joking around, with a beer-and-pretzels kind of atmosphere.

[...]

I wouldn't have her give birth to a half-fiend at all. I'd find some obscure qlippoth or something and have her give birth to that.

[Sith_Happens]

You know how sometimes fetuses kick? This one kicks reality, i.e.- makes weird **** happen.

Cravings? You're looking at the weirdest and most random cravings ever. One day it's elf eyeballs, the next day it's dirt, and the day after that it's emerald dust suspended in unholy water.

Morning sickness? Let's just say the contents of her vomit are best left to the imagination. Except for the part where it gets up and walks away, make sure to describe that.:smallamused:

[Flashy]

Isn't the hobgoblin sort of genderless though?



I imagine that the successful birth of a demon is going to require a lot of crazy theology/gynecology, probably in equal measure. It can't be easy to find good aligned forceps.

The lords of the abyss probably deal with this kind of nonsense at least fairly regularly, even if they are usually more careful about when they create half-fiends. Perhaps there's a really annoying collection of minor demons charged with making sure the stupid mortals don't screw everything up? So the mother keeps getting messages written in flaming letters on parchment made from the skins of the unrepentant damned saying things like "Ten tips on how to PROPERLY CARE for your new bundle of hate!" and imps keep dropping in to make sure that everything is acceptably devil-baby proof and everything is just really draconian and over the line and generally the sort of thing that devils would set up.


EDIT: After reading the Magaav entry, maybe it should be twins. I feel like you could get some serious mileage out of the shared senses supernatural ability. Even if you don't use that (it's pretty abusable) giving them two fiendish babies when they expect one could be a lot of fun.

[MrConsideration]

Your campaign log is great, NowhereMan. Keep it up.

I suppose a major point to think about is how will the Hobgoblin raise this child? If she's going adventuring, is Youngster coming along too? If so, you might need some mechanical role for it, similar to a familiar (especialy with that telepathy ability of the Magaav), and you'll have to consider people's reactions to the child - considering Hiddlebatch is a fire-and-brimstone mutant preacher of doom at the best of times, it might colour reactions against her/him even more.

If little Damien is going to be left at home base, there's all number of plot hooks and hijinks implicit in that situation - how fast does baby grow? What (or who?) does baby eat? What does baby want? What does baby do when she doesn't get it? What is it's relationship to either parent? Does the fiendish parent have any desire to be involved in Junior's life? How prepared are you for an inter-planar custody battle? How does Khurgorbaeyag look upon such unions?

There's loads of stuff to draw inspiration from in actual folklore to do with 'evil pregnancy'. Hiddlebatch should definitely have weird cravings, and need to eat A LOT more than usual to sustain the child's growth - and the baby will be born with a full set of teeth. Several full sets of teeth. Teeth on its eyelids. Teeth jutting through its skin from the bone below. Teeth where no teeth should be.

[NowhereMan583]

Isn't the hobgoblin sort of genderless though?

The player has made it abundantly clear to everyone at the table that her character... has both... sets of equipment.

I like the idea of twins, and the bureaucrat-imps. That might happen.

MrConsideration: One thing I'm planning is to basically skip the infant stage. The Nine Hells are not a hospitable environment for helpless semi-fetuses, so devil-children should be born capable of taking care of themselves to some extent, like many wild animals are. (Of course, this brings up an issue with cranial diameter, but it's magic, right?) So baby will grow really fast for a couple days, then slow down to just "abnormally fast".

Cravings will be overpowering, and there will absolutely be extra teeth.

[TheThan]

due to the influence of a luck-based magic item, I pretty much had to let that happen.


Could you say she got lucky? :smallbiggrin:

Sorry, I couldn’t resist.

[Ettina]

MrConsideration: One thing I'm planning is to basically skip the infant stage. The Nine Hells are not a hospitable environment for helpless semi-fetuses, so devil-children should be born capable of taking care of themselves to some extent, like many wild animals are. (Of course, this brings up an issue with cranial diameter, but it's magic, right?) So baby will grow really fast for a couple days, then slow down to just "abnormally fast".

So, devil-children are like newborn gazelles (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mG2zpUTxR1E)? Cool!

[Erik Vale]

You know, after reading it's description, my thought was more, "S/he willingly bred with that? A creature that smells extremely foul and is disease ridden?"

Outside of that. Looking at it's abilities... I'd homebrew some sort of half-fiend race, and leave it with Greater Teleport. Have the pregnancy while quick become rather painful as they eventually kick with claws... And instead of a traditional birth, they teleport out, and within a few minutes, are at least at imp levels of power.
Additionally, they have telepathy, have them occasionally issue demands with the threat of kicking if S/he doesn't give in.

[Fayd]

On a practical note, my DM came up with a helpful magical item for just such an occasion: The Maternity Dress of Holding! Keep the baby safe in an extradimensional pocket. Possible side effects include: birth defects due to influence of outer planes, githyanki grafitii on the abdomen, vertigo, wispers of dead gods, and death.

[NowhereMan583]

You know, after reading it's description, my thought was more, "S/he willingly bred with that? A creature that smells extremely foul and is disease ridden?"

The hobgoblin's player makes a lot of unusual decisions. I even read the description verbatim (which I don't usually do) and her reaction was still "I want to have its babies".


Have the pregnancy while quick become rather painful as they eventually kick with claws... And instead of a traditional birth, they teleport out, and within a few minutes, are at least at imp levels of power.
Additionally, they have telepathy, have them occasionally issue demands with the threat of kicking if S/he doesn't give in.

This sounds fun.

[Draken]

I think for the sake of not forcing a lot of downtime but at the same time not quickening the pregnancy too much, I would go out to left field and have her pop off an egg a few weeks into the fact and go from there.

Heck, since you have the added freedom of the touch of the Far Realms involved, you could even make the egg translucent and the fetus visible in all its ohgodwhat.

[NowhereMan583]

I think for the sake of not forcing a lot of downtime but at the same time not quickening the pregnancy too much, I would go out to left field and have her pop off an egg a few weeks into the fact and go from there.

Heck, since you have the added freedom of the touch of the Far Realms involved, you could even make the egg translucent and the fetus visible in all its ohgodwhat.

You know, this does make a certain amount of since, since the character ALREADY lays eggs. It would be odd to have her/him give live birth.

[Curbstomp]

3.5 edition?

If you want to be cruel try the Unholy Scion in Heroes of Horror that gains its mother as a minion. :smalltongue: It might also work as a replacement character in an evil party in its own right. I played one once. It was... horrifying, but that is what I was going for.

[Sith_Happens]

You know, this does make a certain amount of since, since the character ALREADY lays eggs. It would be odd to have her/him give live birth.

Then again, we're talking about an Outer Planes/Far Realm hybrid. "Odd" is setting the bar too low.

[Coidzor]

Unholy Scion that fetus. Then she can have compulsions every so often from a mysterious source.