What's in the egg?

[spbtc]

Looking for some suggestions for a little story hook. My players just stumbled across Marjorie's Mysteria - you're prototypical moving magic store, albeit with as much junk and knickknacks as actual magical items. My players managed to pick up an unidentified egg, deep red and orange about the size of an emu egg. Characters are L4 (playing Lost Mine of Phandelver).

What's in the egg? Thinking of this more as a pet ala WOW, than an animal companion or familiar. What would be a fun, level appropriate critter to spring on these guys?

[Amnestic]

Mimic.
Half-dragon displacer beast.
Hydra.
Phoenix.

They're all freshly hatched, and could/would take a long time to grow up, so not a "power concern" in the meantime.

[Naanomi]

It isn't an egg, it is a giant hag's eye

[Sigreid]

milk chocolate

[lall]

And would Purify Food and Drink work on it?

[Idkwhatmyscreen]

I'm going recommend kobold. Have it pop out like at the mental level of a 12 year old since it takes like 6 years to reach adulthood and boom instant child sidekick

[da newt]

I like to dredge up old school DnD monsters that don't get enough love, but you can do anything with this to suit your desires. Is this a treasure they could sell, a baby they have to husband, a pet, a mount, an NPC, the BBEG - soooo many posibilities. If you want to play the long game, it will hatch as a tiny helpless thing, and then grow over time ...

Ankheg
Gazer
Carrion Crawler
Rust Monster
Cockatrice
Ankylosaurus
Fire Newt
Axe Beak
Grell
Hook Horror
Intellect Devourer
Manticore
Otyugh
Peryton
Thri-Kreen
Troglodyte
Xorn
Blood Hawk
Flying Snake
Giant Owl

[Waterdeep Merch]

d12 Mystery Egg
1 Pseudodragon
2 Velociraptor
3 Saber-Toothed Tiger Cub
4 Hippogriff Pony
5 Stirge
6 Flying Snake
7 Displacer Kitten
8 Blink Puppy
9 Blood Hawk
10 Guard Drake
11 Owlbear Cub
12 Fairy Dragon

From a chart I let each of my players roll on in a recent game under similar circumstances.

[Unoriginal]

Looking for some suggestions for a little story hook. My players just stumbled across Marjorie's Mysteria - you're prototypical moving magic store, albeit with as much junk and knickknacks as actual magical items. My players managed to pick up an unidentified egg, deep red and orange about the size of an emu egg. Characters are L4 (playing Lost Mine of Phandelver).

What's in the egg? Thinking of this more as a pet ala WOW, than an animal companion or familiar. What would be a fun, level appropriate critter to spring on these guys?

I would say: the first time a PC dies, the egg hatches to reveal an alive version of the dead PC, identical and with all memories up to when they died.

It would sure be memorable, at least.

[MrStabby]

I would say: the first time a PC dies, the egg hatches to reveal an alive version of the dead PC, identical and with all memories up to when they died.

It would sure be memorable, at least.

This is quite fun.

Alternaively it is the result of a malfunctioning Clone spell from an NPC wizard they met some time ago. A litle magic Minime following them about from an archmage reduced to an infant.

[Unoriginal]

This is quite fun.

Alternaively it is the result of a malfunctioning Clone spell from an NPC wizard they met some time ago. A litle magic Minime following them about from an archmage reduced to an infant.

Well since OP's PCs are doing Lost Mine of Phandelver, and if they killed him, Glasstaff could be inside the egg, transformed into an Imp.

[Wintermoot]

Well since OP's PCs are doing Lost Mine of Phandelver, and if they killed him, Glasstaff could be inside the egg, transformed into an Imp.

Less of a Glasstaff then and more of a Glaswand, amiright?

[Asmotherion]

Whenever I hear Egg, I think Dragon.

But could be some magical experiment giving them some Half-Dragon Beast as suggested above.

A Favorite is a Half-Dragon Horse they could ride and a Half-Dragon Lion.

Other than Half-Dragons, you could also make it some Phoenix egg, or some other rare bird egg.

Finally, don't worry too much about the CR of such a creature, it will hatch as a baby and will take time to actually grow to it's real CR. Start it as a CR 1 custom creature and raise it's CR every 2 levels the Party gains. It's not supposed to be much help in battle, rather than a fun pet to have as a companion.

[GeoffWatson]

A needle, inside of which is a lich's phylactery.

[kazaryu]

Looking for some suggestions for a little story hook. My players just stumbled across Marjorie's Mysteria - you're prototypical moving magic store, albeit with as much junk and knickknacks as actual magical items. My players managed to pick up an unidentified egg, deep red and orange about the size of an emu egg. Characters are L4 (playing Lost Mine of Phandelver).

What's in the egg? Thinking of this more as a pet ala WOW, than an animal companion or familiar. What would be a fun, level appropriate critter to spring on these guys?

a coatl.
1. explains why its so hard to figure out WTF it is
2. coatl are immune to non magical damage, so while its a baby, its safe from a lot of danger.
3. idk...i just like couatls...


also im not sure how to spell it and am too lazy to look it up atm.

[Paeleus]

A needle, inside of which is a lich's phylactery.

Yes, this.

See: Koschei

[Grim Portent]

Well, you did say the egg is about the size of an emu's, so why not an emu?

Not a normal emu of course, one that's magical in some sense. Fire themed perhaps, given the colour of the egg.

In fact, a Phoemu! An emu that when slain burns into ashes, leaving an egg identical to the one the players currently have, which eventually hatches into a new emu. It still takes the normal time span to grow to adulthood (about 1 year for full size, 2 years for sexual maturity, probably won't come up either way,) so for the most part it's just fuzzy, cute, warm and somewhat goofy.


Statwise it would probably be best represented as a fire-immune pony that respawns when it dies. Though it's a baby, so it's stats beyond being fire-proof would probably be best rendered as 'if it gets hit, it dies.'

[Selion]

Looking for some suggestions for a little story hook. My players just stumbled across Marjorie's Mysteria - you're prototypical moving magic store, albeit with as much junk and knickknacks as actual magical items. My players managed to pick up an unidentified egg, deep red and orange about the size of an emu egg. Characters are L4 (playing Lost Mine of Phandelver).

What's in the egg? Thinking of this more as a pet ala WOW, than an animal companion or familiar. What would be a fun, level appropriate critter to spring on these guys?

Cute teddy owlbear <3

[Anonymouswizard]

a coatl.
1. explains why its so hard to figure out WTF it is
2. coatl are immune to non magical damage, so while its a baby, its safe from a lot of danger.
3. idk...i just like couatls...


also im not sure how to spell it and am too lazy to look it up atm.

I'll second this. They look cool and exotic, and aren't going to be in too much danger. But as it's young it also won't be too much hope.


Alternatively inside the egg is another egg. Which contains an egg, which contains an egg, and so on.


Yes, this.

See: Koschei

The drone from Shadowtun? :smalltongue:

Also this can't be that egg. It's not inside a rabbit.

[the_david]

I had to roll on the trinket list for one of the DDAL adventures. I rolled a 1-pound egg with a bright red shell. It was a real conundrum for me, until I settled on a Tressym.

[spbtc]

Several really good ideas. I wish I could do several. I thought of the Tressym, actually. But I'm probably going to go with the Phoemu. If it manages to get to full grown I will probably base it on an Axe Beak, but with fire resistance, a Pheonix-like AOE when it dies and the resur-eggtion twist.

When they bought it I rolled a d100 to see how many game days until it would hatch and got 7, so they'll get to see it soon!

[rlc]

Probably a dragon, if we’re being honest here

[Anonymouswizard]

Probably a dragon, if we’re being honest here

Only if they found the egg in a dungeon :smalltongue:

Also I think a dragon egg would be significantly larger. Both Red and White dragon wyrmlings* are Medium, which implies that they hatch out of eggs with a volume or mass roughly equivalent to that of a human. Which is an order of magnitude bigger than an emu egg for size, two for weight

You likely can't move a dragon egg without a team of people or a cart.

* Why do they have stats?

[Amnestic]

* Why do they have stats?

"Murdering children is fine if they're scaly." - WotC.

[Personification]

Well, you did say the egg is about the size of an emu's, so why not an emu?

Not a normal emu of course, one that's magical in some sense. Fire themed perhaps, given the colour of the egg.

In fact, a Phoemu! An emu that when slain burns into ashes, leaving an egg identical to the one the players currently have, which eventually hatches into a new emu. It still takes the normal time span to grow to adulthood (about 1 year for full size, 2 years for sexual maturity, probably won't come up either way,) so for the most part it's just fuzzy, cute, warm and somewhat goofy.


Statwise it would probably be best represented as a fire-immune pony that respawns when it dies. Though it's a baby, so it's stats beyond being fire-proof would probably be best rendered as 'if it gets hit, it dies.'

Seconding this. According to Google, Emu also have an incubation period of about 45-56 days, so you have some time in game to await the reveal, and this is the amount of time it stays in the egg per reincarnation cycle.

[Rilmani]

It isn't an egg, it is a giant hag's eye


I would say: the first time a PC dies, the egg hatches to reveal an alive version of the dead PC, identical and with all memories up to when they died.

It would sure be memorable, at least.


Well, you did say the egg is about the size of an emu's, so why not an emu?

Not a normal emu of course, one that's magical in some sense. Fire themed perhaps, given the colour of the egg.

In fact, a Phoemu! An emu that when slain burns into ashes, leaving an egg identical to the one the players currently have, which eventually hatches into a new emu. It still takes the normal time span to grow to adulthood (about 1 year for full size, 2 years for sexual maturity, probably won't come up either way,) so for the most part it's just fuzzy, cute, warm and somewhat goofy.


Statwise it would probably be best represented as a fire-immune pony that respawns when it dies. Though it's a baby, so it's stats beyond being fire-proof would probably be best rendered as 'if it gets hit, it dies.'
These are my favorites. But just to be different... It isn't an egg, it is a seed/nut. If it is watered (not necessarily with water- perhaps any magical liquid, or magma, or liquid metal) and planted, it sprouts into a plant that you'd find on one of the four elemental planes. Specifically a baby plant creature. Visually you can base it off of any fruiting plant though, regardless of how the rules describe the plant's appearance.

[Falconcry]

Gwyneth Paltrow? Or just Goop if a PG game.

[Leon]

milk chocolate

surrounding a sickly sweet gooey core