Post/Author/DateTime	Post
reveal 12-14-04, 12:02 PM	In my Eberron campaign, one of the players is a 6th level Cleric of Arawai, Goddess of Agriculture, a diety of fertility, plant life and abundance. The cleric follows the Life and Plant domains. For her backstory, she was attacked while travelling with her husband, another cleric, and other priests and worshippers. She was pregnant at the time. Her husband and baby were both killed. Since that day, she has not had her cycle and fears she can never have a child again; a horrible thing for a worshipper of life. During downtime in the last session, she went to her temple to find out if she ever could have a child again. I have not told her anything and am looking for ideas as to how to allow her to do this. I want to tell her "no but there is a way you could do this. Go to ... and do ..." or something like that. Any ideas?
kisama 12-14-04, 01:04 PM	How about: Her unborn child secretly survived the ordeal and is trapped on another plane. The child is being held captive by some kind of evil being. The being is using the child as a focus of sorts for a curse which is preventing the player from having more children. The evil being does not want the player to have more children because of some kind of ancient prophecy about one of her heirs defeating the evil being in a future battle. :) Edit: Just to make things even more twisted, she learns that some of her church leaders may have assisted the evil being in carrying out it's plans.
rwarner3701 12-14-04, 01:11 PM	baby warforged give cryptic clues to direct her to a forge someplace and have a way to give a warforged an undeveloped personality. it will be fullsized, but will have the intelligance of a child. this might be kinda difficult, with the whole temper tantrum thing, but it would create a new life for her to raise as her own In the deep woods of the Eldeen Reaches, there is a spring. This spring feeds the world, giving birth to countless new lives everyday. If ever discovered, it could cause a new time of prosperity, as life flourishes from the increased exposure to the life giving waters of Eberron. Have caution, the great gaudians of this spring fear that it will fall into the wrong hands bringing about unprecedented plaugues and destroying the natural balance of the world. Did this spring give birth to the Great Druid Oalian, and what knowledge does he have concerning its power and location? Is it in fact a curse, giving eternal life by slowing changing the drinker into a demon who the gatekeepers have been gaurding for thousands of years? Will this new life be the same, or will it develop into the next step towards perfeection outlined in the Prophecy, is that nearby animal infact a member of the chamber waiting for the chosen one to spring forth from the power of Eberron's life force?
kisama 12-14-04, 04:09 PM	Please let us know which one you decide to use. ;)
Wookiee81 12-14-04, 06:50 PM	heh when i need quick quests i usualy ask people (including the players) what there favorite crime is what the plot of a good book they have read is fave movie plot what they would like to play in a game some day ect. In a few houres you have LOADS of ideas that can be intertwined or hang free by themselves. (sept for that imature player who keeps sugesting things to do with sex. exsample.fave crime adultery fave movie some misc XXX film fave book plot some rampant thing and would like to play in a brothel or some such)
Edymnion 12-14-04, 07:59 PM	(sept for that imature player who keeps sugesting things to do with sex. exsample.fave crime adultery fave movie some misc XXX film fave book plot some rampant thing and would like to play in a brothel or some such)Well duh, thats when he (because its obviously a male player) meets the irresistable Cha 18 male supermodel that wants to do all the things he was suggesting. If somebody won't go with the flow, turn it against them! He keeps trying to turn the game into a sex romp, give him a sex romp, just in a way that he would never actually want to even attempt. :devil:
BuckarooBonzai 12-14-04, 08:25 PM	How about if she makes love to a willing female celestial, the celestial takes part of her essence and can bare a child for her? Yes, I am male. Yes, being a horny male was the primary motivation for that suggestion. But not the only one. Seriously, maybe there is a celestial out there, maybe related to nature, or perhaps even a fey, that can somehow bear the cleric a child. Maybe it needs a drop of her blood, or maybe a drop of her blood and a willing male's, then the celestial/naturespirit/fey can combine their souls/essances/genetics and bear a child, which may or may not be half/celestial/fey (though lets face it, I know very few DM's who could resist throwing a template at the poor child. If you're one, kudos.) Or perhaps (and we're back to the sex again. wow, that was a whole paragraph) maybe a celestial could father a child where a mortal could not.
TheSecondZombieJesus 12-14-04, 11:53 PM	Alternatively, you could have her find out she can never bear child again, and as a result of this, her character begins to see her dead child following her around. Crawling at first, then as time passes, the child grows, until it is about 10 or 11. It might add to the game in that the cleric can only see the child and no-one else can. She would have to face the rotting, peeling child and feel the pain of her burden every day of her life, but as the child stays with her longer, it begins to bond with her, offering her advice or scouting for her (a rotting flesh child animal companion if you will). If she tries to kill the child, it will haunt her to the end of her days, but if she encompasses it, and nurtures it as if it were alive (without the feeding, obviously), it will one day disappear, and she will find she can once again produce life. By taking care of the child and not shunning it, she has learnt that no matter what her future child may be (as there may be flaws with her system), she should love it no matter what. This gives the character a renewed belief in life, and a new outlook on her faith. Or, you could entirely ignore that and go on what everyone else said. :)
rdmaughan 12-16-04, 07:07 AM	In order to regain the power to create life the character must bring life to something that is also currently barren. For instance: Rescuing an area from pollution. Helping a farming community through the cycle of sowing through to harvest. A mix of farming in the downtime and defending the community from threats in the gaming sessions. These seem to me to fit with the characters diety.
MarkB 12-16-04, 08:20 AM	What level are the players? Perhaps the solution ot her problem is simply a combination of spells, i.e. Heal and Greater Restoration, cast on her within a few rounds by a member of her faith. But given Eberron's NPC levels, there may be no follower of her deity who can cast those spells, or they may reserve those spells against the direst need. That way, she either has a ray of hope - she can go on adventuring and gaining levels, and hope to one day achieve the ability to cure herself; or she can perform some special quest for the church, in return for which they'll crack out the big-mojo-magic and restore her to fertility.
Streamweaver 12-16-04, 08:48 AM	The real question is what do you want as a GM out of this? Answer that and you'll be able to make up your story. Is it a side plot just for character flavor? Then let the church be able to help her. If she ministers to so and so or sacrifices X she'll recieve healing and be able to bear children. If she opens an orphanage for Cyre war orphans she'll be able to have children. This would give her something to do and not take up much time. If you want this to be a big plot item that effects the whole party the sky is the limit here. My instince for major plots is to do the Eberron thing and make it into a conspiracy. Some possibilities could be. 1. The church has been noticing a problem with many of it's clergy going sterile for seemingly random reasons. They suspect this is some sort of evil magic being worked by followers of The Devourer deep in the Demon Wastes. The party must go there and destroy the Alter of the Barren Harvest to undo this evil. 2. Throw her a moral curve ball. Make it so her own church cannot or will not help her. Perhaps the Blood of Vol will approach her instead offering help. In secret they are seeking to user her very distant connection with the mark of shadow to bring forth a child that would re-establish the line. 3. How about mundane corruption. She is made aware of a healing springs in Aundair run by a sect of her religion. Arriving there she finds out the priests are reaping huge profits and squeezing the poor for everything they can. Muddle it up a bit if you want, maybe the springs don't work or work with a cursed side effect or some kind of price like stat loss. Do they let these priests continue their corrupted ways? 4. You could make it a crisis of faith. Maybe none of the churches will help her and they see it as the "will of the gods", but turning to wizards may help her. What kind of being would she truck with to get this done? Would the Lich living in the Crypts of Sharn help her, if she and her party recovered a lost heirloom of his family? What if a component of the spell to heal her required a moral choice? A recently dead child perhaps? The sacrifice of another living being? What price would she and the party be willing to pay? Just decide what place you want this story to take and a plot should appear.
Just another user 12-16-04, 10:29 AM	The reason because she doesn't have a cycle is that his son is stuck between life and death, somewhere in the Keeper's lair, the only way for her to be able to have a child is to find her son's soul in the Demon's wastes and give him peace so that her personal wheel of life can be unstucked (sp).
Alac Luin 12-16-04, 11:34 AM	In order to return fertility to herself, she must return fertility to an area that is barren. She is to build a temple (or a shrine), with adjoining farm/ grotto in The Demon Wastes, a barron island in the Lazzher(sp) Principalities, or the Mournlands.
Khopesh122 12-16-04, 12:53 PM	Some ideas: The target of the attack on her and her husband was actually the unborn child. A sinister foe has been periodically collecting the lifeblood of unborn children to produce an elixer to extend his own life. The actions of this foe have been particularly abhorrent to Arawai, and The Clergy believes that her lack of fertility is a test, and that her triumph over this foe will be rewarded by Arawai. If you have access to Complete Divine, the Blighter PrC would make an excellent villain in this case. If you would like to maintain the mystery for awhile, and foster an angsty character, try this one. When the high priest uses whatever oracular means he would normally employ to answer such a question (assuming the priest has such a means and is not simply speculating), have him struck mad by the process. He speaks in gibberish, and starts drawing unknown, dragonmarklike symbols everywhere. The new high priest, a loyal friend of the former one, now views the PC with suspicion, believing that somehow she caused this madness. String out the process. At some point in the future, the mad priest falls ill. When the PC comes to see him, he whispers a cryptic message to her and dies. Another suggestion, which could follow up the former or stand on it's own as a long term campaign. The PC's fertility was stolen by the Blood of Vol. Through terrible rituals, Vol plans to concieve and bear a living child, to rebirth the bloodline of Vol as well as the Mark of Death. When Vol finally concieves, the PC will begin to waste away as the cursed child begins to draw upon her life energy to grow to term. Depending on how high the PCs are, levelwise, either Vol herself must be physically defeated, or a method must be discovered to sever the PC's lifebond to the child, most likely rendering her permanently infertile. In the latter case, the situation can always come back to haunt the PCs if Vol had already accounted for the possibility, and had another mortal life to draw on to complete the ritual. If this option followed up the former suggestion, the high priest's oracular power had him glimpse a segment of the Prophecy, which drove him mad. For another possibility, when the PC asks the High Priest if she will ever have a child again, she is told "To purify yourself, you must removee the corruption within." This can go many ways, but the direction I'm thinking of is that the PCs husband was a corrupt cleric of his faith, be it the same faith as the PC or otherwise. During his life, he fostered much corruption within his own church, and in order for the PC to become fertile again, she must root out the corruption her husband caused. Yeah, I like making my players suffer for their rewards. What of it? :evillaugh
reveal 12-20-04, 12:59 PM	Here's what I've decided to do. Thanks for all the input! :D The PC in question has decided that they would like to become a "Contemplative" whic is a PrC from the Complete Divine. One of the prereq's is that the PC must be contacted by their diety or a representative of that diety. My plan is to play on the cleric's nature and present the PCs with the opportunity to rescue a kidnapped woman who is very pregnant and could give birth at any time. When the PCs track down the kidnappers they will find the woman in chains and the baby being used in some sort of ritual. The head cleric of the order who kidnapped her will tell them that he and she are in league to spawn a demon child, one who's very existence will be that bent on the destruction of the world. The woman will plead for her life and tell the PCs the man is insane and that he is going to kill her and her baby. Who will the PCs believe? Before all this happens, the cleric will be given visions of this woman, or at least glimpses, so that when confronted with the above scenario, the cleric will, hopefully, take the hint and stop the ceremony from taking place and free the child and take the baby somewhere safe. If this is done, the cleric will be told she has done well and that by saving a life from being one of pure evil, she can now have a child of her own. Not sure how she will be told this but I'll figure it out. :D