Hollow Pregnancy?

[Sathien]

So after running my first Ravenloft campaign lasting more than 3 sessions, I've been at a cross-roads with where to start a sort of "Season 2" of the campaign. The final session ended in that border port between Nova Vaasa and Darkon (name eludes me), with a max HD doppelganger plant having replaced two of the PCs. A third PC, betrothed to one of the husks, bolted when she realized things had gone horribly awry; that her lover (of Godefroy bloodline via the Weathermays) had died.

I'm considering having an interim state of play. Here's the breakdown of that party as it stood when I ended the season:
PC 1: Mark. A Forfarian-blooded man of Dementileuse upbringing and the first husk. He's dead.
PC 2: Jonathan. The second husk, now a ghost tied to PC 3.
PC 3: Catherine. A witch posing as an anchorite. The one betrothed to Jonathan and pregnant with his child.
PC 4: Victoria Mordenheim. Although captured by the doppelganger plant, her transposition with a pain devil (from Fiendish Codex II) had given her enough benefits to avoid beign dissolved. She broke out of her pod and killed the plant. Eventually she tracked Catherine's trail to Nevuchar Springs. Where the game ended.

My main issue is with Victoria. She has the Hollow feat, yet I came up with her due to potentially have twins (by Mark roughly two weeks before landing on the Core's eastern shore). I'm going to handle this in-world as "It's called being 'expecting' for a reason." Victoria had attained the third stage of transposition, as well as having the Hollow feat. What's the opinion of you fine people on conception? Should there be nothing come from it? The resulting spawn should be tieflings/half-fiends? Something else?

[Zilfer]

Not that I don't think they couldn't normally reproduce i think since the demon background is happening it should have some play. Don't know why a hollow person wouldn't be able to breed however.... xD

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

I voted for tiefling. If she were a full fiend, they'd be half-fiend, but being only partially transpossessed, I say that dilutes the fiend blood enough to make tieflings. Which, by the way, doesn't mean that her offspring are doomed to follow her path. If she hides their fiendish features from local mobs long enough for them to grow up, they will have a great back story as tortured heroes. Maybe they try to redeem their mother (if she's still alive and not fully transpossessed by then) or slay her (or one of each!). Or maybe one goes good and one evil.

Not sure how to handle a PC saddled with young kids though. As a parent of 3 kids under age 6, believe me, there's not much time for adventuring. You could borrow page from Angel and .....

VIEW CONTENT:

have the kids magically age up in some way. Lost in the time-warping mists, or spend some time in the Shadow Rift with a fey nanny, or like in that show, have them grow up in a hell dimension and then return. Maybe the transpossession transfers to them somehow, and they get pulled into the outer planes instead of their mother. Then they return fully grown with major mommy issues....

anyway, that's a long-winded way of saying: I don't think Hollow has anything to do with it, but the fiendish influence should...

[Sathien]

Zilfer: My argument against the idea of a Hollow person being able to conceive is based on the idea that if a person's own life can't be returned to them, why should they be able to make a new one? I.e. lacking a soul means a person is the very opposite of being a vessel for another soul, let alone one's own. It just boils down to personal taste and world-building. I hope it makes sense in that light.

Gonzoron: I'm not intending to saddle a PC with kids, mainly just covering the birth (I've already decided that Victoria's pregnancy will move along MUCH more swiftly than Catherine's) and a few vignettes at various stages of the children's lives; dovetailing into a second season campaign with the players controlling the offspring; whether or not Victoria's player will be playing as her kids or as a new character is yet to be determined (still debating what to do with them and how she'll react). The idea of expedited aging does appeal to me however (a portion of me even wants to make one of her kids a Hellbred, or whatever that Hellboy-esque PC race in the Devil book is called). Hmm, I'm thinking of possibly having them born conjoined. Victoria started as Lawful Neutral and is leanding from Neutral Evil to Chaotic, a fact which certainly annoys the pain devil side.

Actually, I think Victoria was actually on her 4th powers failure, if that matters any.
I goofed up and ran a premade adventure which included a hat of disguise. Things eventually progressed to the point where she commissioned artistans for a trio of metal masks like Hexadecimal from Reboot (each had a different face), only to eventually require slicing open her mouth for speech and food from her most "recent" powers failure (and I've already decided that delivering the children may be compromised due to a sealed "entranceway").

[Zilfer]

Wow that's scary in of it's self... I just imagined walking into the bedroom with a girl like that and eventually getting everything off and then..... wha the...... *runs away quickly*

xD

As for being able to be brought 'back'. It doesn't change the fact that he currently does have life. That life can be pushed forward.... I'm questioning whether the kid would have a soul or half a soul.... but those are things you could toy with.

[Jimsolo]

I vote fiendish offspring. Tiefling, humanoid with the fiendish template, or half-fiend, as you like. Personally, I don't see any reason that soul-less people can't reproduce. The partial transpossession, though, could definitely influence the pregnancy in a fiendish direction.

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

I guess it comes down to: where does a new child's soul come from? Is it split off somehow from the parents? is it created spontaneously or by the gods or dark powers? is it recycled from the recently dead? Only the 1st option would make a Hollow parent an issue.

[Dion of the Fraternity]

I'm voting "something else," just because I don't like conventions.

A supernatural pregnancy doesn't necessarily have to be infernal in nature. It's been done to death.

Why not a god?

[The Giamarga]

I vote tieflings with perhaps a bit of something else. . Half fiend definately not, though in the fourth stage of transposession it's nto too far away.

As for Hollow, it's a tricky question. Ron has it right, thw question is where does the new soul come from, and when?

Another question is what's most fun? Having no children at all is no fun to me. I think the Dark Powers would like for something to be born. And since you do want to shift generations anyways it's a great chance for a cool background.

Which system do you use? Pathfinder has nice diversion in creating tieflings. You can fiddle around so much with custom tiefling traits, feats , variant heritages (devil spawn?), archetypes, and alternate racial traits. I'd jump at the chance to build a PC with such a background in PF.

What will you do with the surviving (and ghostly) original first generation PCs? Will they make an entrance as NPCs? Will Victorica become BBEG?

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

A supernatural pregnancy doesn't necessarily have to be infernal in nature. It's been done to death.

True, it's been done, but this is a bit backwards to the usual way it happens. Usually the fiendish male suitor or rapist impregnates the human woman. In this case, it's the fiendish, transpossessed woman who's carrying the children of human man. That's gotta score a few points for originality, no?

[Dark Angel]

I'm voting "something else," just because I don't like conventions.

A supernatural pregnancy doesn't necessarily have to be infernal in nature. It's been done to death.

Why not a god?

Too Vecna Reborn (although the plots could be linked...)

Remember, most things in our life are not original, just twists on things we have already seen out (I liked Avatar better when it wasn't Dances with Wolves meets Aliens). Unexpected twists are great as long as the players don't always expect them. Then there are things that are expected (I burned my hand? From what, that smoldering log?) that are really unsettling when it doesn't occur. I had a Call of Cthulu inspired moment when the group had been investigating a mysterious cult (Old West setting). The one sentry had snuck up on them and as the group was trying to figure out how to avoid getting shot and raising alarm, the man calmly said, "Oh, thank gods you are finally here!" That's when he turned the gun on himself and blew his brains out. The looks from the players was priceless. Maybe the baby is perfectly fine, regardless of parentage. Maybe the baby is the incarnation of its mother that was switched into the fetus instead of forced into the outer planes.

[The Giamarga]

Well the setting is based on pastiches. So some "conventions" and in-originality should be expected.

[Joël of the FoS]

I'm voting "something else," just because I don't like conventions.

A supernatural pregnancy doesn't necessarily have to be infernal in nature. It's been done to death.

Ditto!

[Deewun]

Maybe the baby is perfectly fine, regardless of parentage. Maybe the baby is the incarnation of its mother that was switched into the fetus instead of forced into the outer planes.

This is by far my favorite idea. I love the simplicity. I love that if a PC does take this character, they'll never be able to know FOR SURE there isn't something wrong with them because of their unique parentage. The Dark Powers have a new play thing, and he is completely normal and going crazy from thinking he isn't.

[order99]

Maybe the PC IS perfectly normal. Of course if you're doing that 3E ruleset you could always give him or her a free background Feat of some sort reflecting an Unnatural heritage...or just create a Caliban, as that seems to be the default 'race' for "something really WRONG happened and I gave birth to THIS!!"...

Since I still like 2E i'd probably use a Dwarf, Half-Orc or Half-elf Race for that 'Touch of the Strange' bit.