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So my group just wrapped up Howl of the Carrion King and they managed to befriend Undrella during the course of the adventure. She took an abrupt interest in our 1/2 orc barbarian with all of his "manly muscles". The player of said barbarian instead of reacting with repulsion, I showed them the picture of her, was immediately infatuated. So of course he's chosen the Romantic Interest downtime option which leads me to an awkward question. What happens if a 1/2 orc knocks up a harpy? Is it even possible? He's practically rooting for a family so it's tempting to give him one. Looking for a few thoughts on the matter.
Um. Whoa. Uh. Okay. Who am I to judge their love.
So! Although I can't put my finger on it at the moment, I seem to remember some bit of lore about harpies always having harpies. The race is dominated by - if not wholly comprised of - females, and thus need to, um, "raid" to reproduce. Thus, I'd say, like hags, harpies always have harpies, though in this case, probably a snagletooth green-tinged harpy. One way or another, that's probably not going to be a beautiful baby...
Though if they did have some gorgeous harpy kid, that'd be pretty cool too.
Egad! My minds' eye has been blinded. :) I was just reading Howl last night and wondering what sort of mischief my players would get into with the crazy sociable harpy. Probably about the same as yours. Yeah, go for the kid...probably be fun to work in some stories about the half-orc's family, especially in later episodes (spoiler omitted).
M
Ah the clickety clack of little talons. It's been ages since I've preened a baby harporc.
(When feeding, consider a diet of straight Kyuss worms over mundane nightcrawlers. They'd much higher in the essential malice and rot that a baby harpoc's thin bones need for proper growth and development... then again, I can't picture that little fug having the lift to get off the ground.)
I'd say you're looking at a seriously messed up "family". I'd say "go for it", especially if you can find some "Ecology of" articles floating around (or anything else) that gives some information on harpy breeding.
Females are likely to be most of the number - but if you REALLY want to mess with his head, one hatching can be male with a very striking resemblance to daddy.
Perhaps as the character's "retirement" ?
I'm pretty sure that the little tyke will not be easily pawned off on any relatives or friends ...
Maybe you can get some alignment conflicts in there and baby-momma drama.
"Krugg said he'd be there for me and my baby, but he's always off killing hydras!"
"Whaaa...! You're evil and crazy, lady!"
The party's paladin, of course, encourages the father to raise the baby in a more "suitable" environment.
Who's the Jerry Springer of Katapesh?
Thus, I'd say, like hags, harpies always have harpies
This is what I'd go with, I wouldn't even have it be green and snagletooth. When harpies breed the harpy traits are always dominant. So just have harpy babys and work on increasing your will save, because they'll be a usin that song on you like crazy.
All harpies are female I believe. I think they reproduce using humans anyway.
A half-orc is half-human after all.
Id say she'd lay some regular harpy eggs.
You can also go the preying mantis route and have instincts kick in and she tries to kill him after mating.
Mongoose Publishing made The Slayers Guide to Harpies....I'd bet theres an ecology that deals with reproduction in that book.
DarkWhite
(Pathfinder Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Roleplaying Game, Campaign Setting, Companion, Modules, Battles Case Subscriber; GameMastery Superscriber)
So! Although I can't put my finger on it at the moment, I seem to remember some bit of lore about harpies always having harpies. The race is dominated by - if not wholly comprised of - females, and thus need to, um, "raid" to reproduce.
This has always been my assumption, until ...
It's not always easy to tell with Dungeons & Dragons Miniatures, many of them have an ambiguity about them so they can stand in for either sex, but the Shrieking Harpy definitely resembles the male of the species.
Maybe they routinely kill the males of their species, and go on raids into neighbouring lands to reproduce, but it would seem (at least using the Shrieking Harpy as an example) that male harpies are born, and perhaps some rare fugitives escape their matriarchal society and live in hiding?
Also, I see no reason why the "human" features of the species couldn't resemble an orc, drow, or other (unfortunate) male parent. It seems humans are always the assumed species for hybrids such as harpies, werewolves, vampires, centaurs, etc. This need not always be the case. Taking into account biological (in)compatibilities, personal preferences, opportunity and other factors, the "human" stock could more likely resemble the most common humanoid race in the region.
Um. Whoa. Uh. Okay. Who am I to judge their love.
You know you've got a way out there topic when you make Wes studder like a drunk lol.
I've seen my fair share of interesting moments in D&D and other RPGs so I say go for it. And if ya do, you should ask Hugo Solis, fellow board poster lol, to draw up a family portrait.
Funny thing. In the text of the module, the harpy is described as being kinda unnappealing and nasty.... but...
But when I saw her picture the first thing popping into my head was, "Wow. I'd totally hit that. As long as she didn't rip me apart." Frankly, she's kind of really damn gorgeous in the pics, and her raptorish bits just make her look exotic, not freaky. Mix up between artist and art request?
You know, I have this image of the child of such a half-orc-harpy pairing growing up into the harpy equivelent of She-Hulk.
I'd definitely do a whole clutch of eggs, maybe including one that the mother thinks is a runt and is going to kill off--it'd be cool if the PC father felt obliged to raise the thing himself!
A PC in one of my early campaigns, who was himself a half-ogre, fooled around while shapeshifted into a dog and a few months later was presented with a litter of puppies that occasionally turned into baby half-ogres. It was pretty fun, though too late in the campaign for extended play.
I'd also think about what the maturation rate will be. Half-orcs grow up pretty fast. If harpies do too, these could be "teenaged" harporcs within a few years. Lots of fun.
The mother must be immune to her babies' charm song, but the father probably isn't! And they will of course be motivated to charm him. If you are into Freudian psychology, the kill your mother / marry your father developmental phase could get *real* interesting.
Funny thing. In the text of the module, the harpy is described as being kinda unnappealing and nasty.... but...
But when I saw her picture the first thing popping into my head was, "Wow. I'd totally hit that. As long as she didn't rip me apart." Frankly, she's kind of really damn gorgeous in the pics, and her raptorish bits just make her look exotic, not freaky.
It does turn up a lot though; art for female monsters typically leaning towards attractive despite however they may be described in the text. The medusa from the 2nd Edition Monstrous Manual comes to mind.
It goes in the opposite direction every now and then too.
I was in a campaign about 23 years ago where one player had a wizard who was a total sicko.
During a trip by ship DM: You all see a pod of about a dozen dolphins swimming in the bow spray of the Sea Ghost...Oh wait another dolphin has joined the pod.
Party: Whers's the mage!
Needless to say I was soooo pleased when polymorph became unworkable and dropped. Olginmore's pack-mule can sleep safe tonight. He was booted out of the party on the grounds of taste when he put Animate Dead into his spellbook....
For a fun npc or even a player character down the road the baby could look remarkably human with wings though possibly with a tougher build than usual. You certainly would have a child that is shunned from society if his/her true nature is ever discovered, but it could make for some great roleplaying.
I laughed to myself when I read this post for the first time. Then when i allowed a PC to remake a character because what he was doign ( based on Beta at the time) got completely changed and asked if he coudl just re roll. i allowed it and in he walks with the onyl man in our group. A half-orc Paladin with 17 Charisma.
Undrella loved him.
and my group came to call them Horpies
I seem to remember some bit of lore about harpies always having harpies. The race is dominated by - if not wholly comprised of - females, and thus need to, um, "raid" to reproduce.
I'd definitely do a whole clutch of eggs, maybe including one that the mother thinks is a runt and is going to kill off--it'd be cool if the PC father felt obliged to raise the thing himself!
Perhaps harpies just practice male infanticide. So the half-orc PC would find out that his first-spawned son is destined to be made into a sandwich...
Um. Whoa. Uh. Okay. Who am I to judge their love.
So! Although I can't put my finger on it at the moment, I seem to remember some bit of lore about harpies always having harpies. The race is dominated by - if not wholly comprised of - females, and thus need to, um, "raid" to reproduce. Thus, I'd say, like hags, harpies always have harpies, though in this case, probably a snagletooth green-tinged harpy. One way or another, that's probably not going to be a beautiful baby...
Though if they did have some gorgeous harpy kid, that'd be pretty cool too.
Firstly, thanks for keeping the monogender monsters. I just plainlike the idea that some critters have only one gender and need other races to carry on.
That said, for some reason the whole "half-orc and harpy have a gorgeous harpy child' reminds me of what happened in Dick Tracy when BO Plenty and Gravel Gertie got it on.
I just posted in another thread about my aberrant-bloodline albino Mawangi sorcerer getting into a relationship with Undrella. (Had I known there was already a thread about this sort of odd relationship...) We just hit the point in the adventure path with some major downtime, so they'll be shacking up while he gets his pesh business up and running.
Ah...I was too late to bring the manticore love to this thread. :(The paladin in our campaign who had Horkies with Undrella is no considering breeding his horkie daughters with his celestial mount to create a pegasus.
And with one post my attitude of d'awwwww towards this thread turns to abject horror.
