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Sun Nov 29, 2009 9:35 am Devising the Daughter of Incabulos

In my undersea campaign the soul of the main protagonist NPC, a night hag, currently resides in an eidolon (construct) made of ambergris. She is known to have many children. Now that she has a physical form, again, I wonder what sort of child she might conceive. The last child she conceived occurred while she was a ghost possessing the metal body of a construct; "Grandmother Clock". Due to the nature of the Iron Hag, being constructed of clockwork horrors and a quarut inevitable, the child was a mechanatrix, a partially clockwork being.

I am thinking of using nature as a guideline. Ambergris is often formed around a squid’s beak (formed in the intestines of sperm whales, around an irritant, to help "pass" the irritant one way or another), thus the beak of a kraken or similar creature could be in the ambergris golem. This could then be broken down and used to form the skeletal structure of the unborn child.

Before her soul was placed in the ambergris eidolon, Xaetra was a spirit hag, a spectral hag capable only of inhabiting the dreams of those she knew in life. I wonder what might have transpired if Incabulos had visited her, during her incarceration. He is known to fancy hags, after all.

So, the daughter of Incabulos born of a hag’s soul placed in a construct made of ambergris. Thoughts? (Aside from Aeo needs professional help ;) )

Sun Nov 29, 2009 7:51 pm

The offspring of the god of nightmares and a hag who only exists in dreams would probably be another creature of dreams. The best model for this would probably be the dream larva from the Epic Level Handbook: "the misbegotten offspring of deities of fancy, longing, and dream... dream larva are night terrors that escape from dream into the waking world, nightmares made manifest." The default dream larva, although I'm sure variations exist, is a large humanoid shape "composed of thousands of crawling larval worms. Dream larvae have horns, a cruelly fanged mouth, four arms ending in claws, and four arms tipped with pincers." Each viewer initially sees the dream larva as embodying their worst fear, however.

If you think something of the hag's ambergris golem body should have been transmitted to the child... perhaps the dream larva takes on a tentacled, kraken-like appearance, though still vaguely humanoid. Or perhaps it's a creature made of thousands of writhing squid rather than spectral worms.

Mon Nov 30, 2009 8:28 am

I don't really have anything to contribute to this other than to second Rasgon on the squid thing and to say, you are a sick man Aeolius, and I mean that as a high compliment. Smile

Tue Dec 01, 2009 12:56 pm

There's GH campaigns and then there is Aeolius' campaign. He is in a class all his own. Very eerie cool stuff.

Mon Oct 11, 2010 5:19 pm

On a whim, I had the ambergris hag give birth at the end of last session. All the party knows that they had come into the possession of a large oddly-shaped pearl (inspired by this thread ), and it seems that the pearl has now taken on a life of its own.

So now I have a week to figure out just what might impregnate an incorporeal hag trapped in the Dreamscape, travel with her back to the Prime as she is placed in an eidolon made of ambergris, then transfer into a massive pearl surrounding an unknown artifact...

Same ol', same ol' ;)

Mon Oct 11, 2010 11:46 pm

I'd do it, just to see the look on their faces. Evil Grin

Come to think of it, a halfling would be just about the last thing they'd expect, especially if it was an aquatic halfling, all innocent and sweet, who ultimately turned into some slavering, hellspawned beastie. Yeah, I think I'll steal that idea! (No, wait, it's already mine. Nevermind. You can have it.)

Tue Oct 12, 2010 6:13 am

I just barfed! Embarassed

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Tue Oct 12, 2010 5:49 pm

Wed Oct 13, 2010 9:52 am

Sat Oct 16, 2010 12:51 pm

Since the hag's last child was a mechanatrix, a planetouched being, perhaps I shall devise the demi-plane of Pearl, to make a new planetouched being.

Sun Oct 17, 2010 3:56 pm

Shall I repeat myself? And you accuse me of procrastination! Have you no shame? Shocked

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Mon Oct 18, 2010 6:22 am

Mon Oct 18, 2010 4:33 pm

*Barf!*

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Fri Oct 22, 2010 11:57 am

I have an idea that you are free to steal or make fun of as you see fit.

Have the Pearl hatch a classic mongrel-man. But a baby. Make the wee tyke a total quadriplegic. Hell, give it a huge apple head. But give it some ridiculous DR and SR. Here's why:

The thing is turbo psychic. When it sleeps its dreams manifest in reality. At first these may be fairly basic stuff - weird, but harmless. As it gets older (and you could have it age at a weird rate to boot) the dreams-made-manifest become more terrible.

Eventually it will need stopped and a confrontation with it's dream-self will be necessary. Here is where you have fun.

Take that dream larva thingy mentioned in the earlier post and slap on a few templates. I pretty sure there a multiple 'clockwork'-ish templates floating around out there. Check Green Ronin's Advanced Monster book and the Book of Templates.

Add a dash of Freddy Kreuger inspired abilities here and there, and go to town.

Good luck, and keep us posted!

Sat Oct 23, 2010 7:51 am

Heh. I used an idea similar to that once myself. I saddled the PCs with an infant human (his mother died in the cleric's arms as the other PCs were fending off her attackers) that nobody seemed willing to care for. They eventually learned the baby had a distant relative about 1000 miles away, and so decided to take him there.

Of course, IMC the child was the son of Tharizdun. Bad things ensued...

Sat Oct 23, 2010 9:01 am

My anemoid race was born of a similar story:

"Years ago, a child was born to the Tribe Farosh, a small band of humans which live upon a single spire. The child, in his infancy, would not develop as would his peers, for he had shown signs of "the stiffening", a disabling palsy. The elder shaman of the Farosh, claiming to have foreseen the coming of the child in dreams and omens, sacrificed the infant on the night when both moons shone full. Casting the child into the open ocean, the shaman claimed that the boy was A'nan, an undying prophet whose people would suffer a terrible plague. The elder shaman hoped, that by sacrificing the child, he would alter his premonition.

Years later, stories emerged regarding the emergence of the anemoid, a race of diminutive humanoid anemones. Their leader, whom they called A'nan, had been nurtured by a giant anemone. The boy and anemone had bonded, gifting the child with the ability to survive beneath the waves and immunity to the toxins of sea creatures. The anemone flourished, as it partook of the child's remarkable intellect. The anemoid claim that their founding members were born from A'nan himself, having grown from buds which separated from his body. The anemoid have recently counted clerics among their numbers.

Legend has it that the elder shaman died from an unknown ailment. "

Sun Oct 24, 2010 7:00 am

The daughter of Incabulos should be a hamster. Just a regular hamster. And everyone should be afraid of it because of what it 'might' become if they make it angry. They should enshrine it and protect it just in case the hamster's father was to be offended by its mistreatment.

Sun Oct 24, 2010 9:24 am

mental note to self... dungeon designed like a Habitrail...

I'll cook that one up after I write up a one-shot inspired by "The old lady who swallowed a fly"... envision tower ruins where the lowet level has chasme (fly), followed by a layer with phase spiders, etc... the highest level has the "old lady"... probably a hag