I have a very peculiar question for you all.
My campaign has taken a rather grim turn, as they so often do. A character has died while 3 months pregnant. Is there any spell you can think of that could conceivably keep the baby alive? It's a disturbing thought, but in your opinion, do you think Gentle Repose on the mother's corpse would be enough to bring the child to term?
I shall put the context behind some spoiler tags, for obvious reasons...
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I think you are reaching deep on this one.
If there was something that could put the mother in suspended animation you could buy time to create a magically powered artificial uterus - a birthing pod or something.
The forever man is not a caster-type (IIRC), but he does have some serious connections.
Easy way out would be raise dead brings both back. Bring back two birds with one diamond!
For some reason I expected magical midwifery to a much happier topic... On the other hand, I guess you could have a child who grows up to be Guts.
I think you are reaching deep on this one.
Oh, I am definitely reaching. But I have a feeling the player would want me to. She's really into these sort of soap opera twists and turns.
If there was something that could put the mother in suspended animation you could buy time to create a magically powered artificial uterus - a birthing pod or something.
A birthing pod. Yeah, that would be all kinds of creepy. I can imagine the Forever man having a few of those in the attic.
The forever man is not a caster-type (IIRC), but he does have some serious connections.
He's definitely a powerful caster-type. Lost Cities of Golarion has him listed as a level 12 sorceror with predominantly enchantment and necromancy spells.
Easy way out would be raise dead brings both back. Bring back two birds with one diamond!
Trouble is, Ameiko was decapitated. And the father kept her head (yeah, just when you think it couldn't get darker, it got darker). So Raise Dead wouldn't be possible without the whole body, and I can't see Tiluatchek investing in a full resurrection just to keep the baby kicking.
Easy way out would be raise dead brings both back. Bring back two birds with one diamond!Trouble is, Ameiko was decapitated. And the father kept her head (yeah, just when you think it couldn't get darker, it got darker). So Raise Dead wouldn't be possible without the whole body, and I can't see Tiluatchek investing in a full resurrection just to keep the baby kicking.
Okay, he uses restore object or restore corpse or whatever you want to pick. You can make something vague up if you really wanted to. "With an arcane ritual most dark, the child lives on without a mother" or something similar. You could also have him actively hunt down the remainder of the corpse for this or future schemes or just even just to be cheap.
Really what happens is up to you and the type of game you want to run. Some GMs are okay with a bit of fiat to get story results, and some players would despise their GM for using a soap opera turn. Whether repose would be good enough is really up to you too. Personally I always saw it as a magical and slightly less disgusting form of embalming, which wouldn't do anything to keep a child alive. Then again in a world of magic, pigs fly, and easily, though some assistance may be required!
Mage's Magnificent Mansion. Hear me out
The spell creates an extradimensional space that, in essence, meets all the living, environmental needs of the occupants right? The dead woman's body becomes the "entrance" and the environment is tailored to that of a perfect gestational space for fetal development.
Of course the corpse has to be kept and protected and as well some way to permanize or refresh the spell has to be achieved. I'm sure it'd get more costly than just res'ing the woman but that's all I can think of.
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A fetus needs more from a mother than it not rotting around her. Without the mother's circulatory system the fetus would run out of oxygen within minutes. Without the mother eating, the fetus would starve. Without the mother's body warmth, the fetus would go into hypothermia. On and on.
Basically, unless you bring mom back right quick, the baby has acquired the dead condition. Whether that is reversible would probably depend on when the fetus gets a soul, which is a whole nother can of worms. In any event, it is unlikely that a fetal soul that had just died horrifically would feel any pressing desire to return to the world of the living, so most Resurrection magic would probably fail.
I would expect that you could build an item or create a spell that would be a 'gestation tank' if you wanted. Most likely though unless you had it ready ahead of time, you won't be able to save the baby.
All that said, GMs can do what you want, and you should never let mere reality intrude with a great story, but you would probably have to think about these problems (and have some solution to them) to make the story believable.
One the other hand, a bad guy passing off some other child as the baby of the dead mother would be just the sort of nasty thing a bad guy might do to mess with the heroes....
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Mage's Magnificent Mansion. Hear me out
The spell creates an extradimensional space that, in essence, meets all the living, environmental needs of the occupants right? The dead woman's body becomes the "entrance" and the environment is tailored to that of a perfect gestational space for fetal development.
Of course the corpse has to be kept and protected and as well some way to permanize or refresh the spell has to be achieved. I'm sure it'd get more costly than just res'ing the woman but that's all I can think of.
Everyone please ignore the 4'x8' portal floating over the woman's crotch. Nothing to see here. And please, don't enter!
I haven't seen The Book of Erotic Fantasy in a long time, but it has birthing and midwife rules if I remember correctly. Its d20 compliant.
That kid would have some SERIOUS sorcerer bloodline mo-jo going on!
Enter a Faustian pact and have it instantly born into the world as a tiefling out to kill his father and the guy who made the pact. Raise the mother as an incorporeal undead and have the child born as a half-undead of some sort. Lots delicious bloodline, racial, and template goodies you can do.
Closest I can think of is a spell I wrote for the 3E Ravenloft line, cuckoo's egg, which wouldn't work well in this situation for multiple reasons. Based on nothing more than my own arbitrary take on fantasy metaphysics, though, if the pregnancy's still in the first trimester (sound like this one was on the cusp), I'd have raise dead restore the the fetus to life along with the mother. Double the impetus to get that head back in time! I agree with others, though: if Mom and child are restored to life, that kid's definitely looking at potential as an undead-bloodline sorcerer,
I may finally have a solution. You need to cast Permanency and Sands of Time.
SANDS OF TIME
School necromancy; Level cleric 3, sorcerer/wizard 3, witch 3
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S
Range touch
Target touched creature or object
Duration 10 minutes/level or instantaneous (see text)
Saving Throw none; Spell Resistance yes
You temporarily age the target, immediately advancing it to the next age category. The target immediately takes the age penalties to Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution for its new age category, but does not gain the bonuses for that category. A creature whose age is unknown is treated as if the spell advances it to middle age. Ageless or immortal creatures are immune to this spell.If you cast this on an object, construct, or undead creature, it takes 3d6 points of damage + 1 point per caster level (maximum +15) as time weathers and corrodes it. This version of the spell has an instantaneous duration.
Technically RAW this doesn't work because Sands of Time isn't listed for Permanency but it makes sense for your scenario. And if you are going to use a GM fiat, this is the time. This would let the baby rapidly age to a survivable age.
You other option which does work as written would be to Reincarnate the baby's soul into another body. But I prefer the Sands of Time route.
I'd definitely go for either undead bloodline sorcerer or oracle with the wasting curse.The half undead concept would make sense since raise dead incurs a penalty and I'm pretty sure a foetus doesn't have levels and it might not even have a con score which would technically make this spell impossible.
Is there a way you could transfer the foetus to another host, human or otherwise? Maybe use something like the 3.5 spell baleful transposition on an unknowing pregnant woman? The games I play are so much sunshine and rainbows compared to this.
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OK, here's an idea:
The real issue here is time.
First, plane shift the baby to the astral plane before it dies. The astral plane gives you all the time you need. Biology is suspended on the astral plane. The astral plane has the timeless trait. This means the baby stops aging, and it stops needing any biological functions to sustain it.
This will solve your time problem, so all you really need to do is then write up the plot device that you want to create the necessary story line you are looking for.
Just plane shift it to the astral plane and go to work.
This buys you all the time you need to:
1)Clone the mom.
2)Create a simulacrum of the mom
3)Craft an artificial womb
4)Research a necromantic spell for the purpose of keeping it alive outside of the womb.
5) Research a necromantic spell for the purpose of transporting the fetus into the body of another creature (not necessarily another person mind you...)
6) Cast Create Demiplane so that it that sustains the baby while increasing the flow of time so that it grows extremely quickly (i.e. you now have an adult NPC on your hands)
7) Etc....
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From a physiological standpoint, even of the child could somehow live the developement of organs and mind would be shot. So I might go with that but then this kid would have to literally live off magic or be living magic itself.
What mind? Did you ever try talking to a baby?
Astral plane. That's your answer.
Mage's Magnificent Mansion. Hear me out
The spell creates an extradimensional space that, in essence, meets all the living, environmental needs of the occupants right? The dead woman's body becomes the "entrance" and the environment is tailored to that of a perfect gestational space for fetal development.
Of course the corpse has to be kept and protected and as well some way to permanize or refresh the spell has to be achieved. I'm sure it'd get more costly than just res'ing the woman but that's all I can think of.
I like it. This is exactly the sort of bizarre lateral thinking I was hoping for. Somehow, I think it may be a lot easier to sell the "birthing pod" idea if I make it as disturbing as possible. That way, they're too disgusted by the concept to ask me for too many spellcraft rolls.
I haven't seen The Book of Erotic Fantasy in a long time, but it has birthing and midwife rules if I remember correctly. Its d20 compliant.
I have had The Book of Erotic Fantasy sitting on my hardrive for several years now, but I've always been a little too put off by its reputation to take a really good look at it. Perhaps now is the time.
A fetus needs more from a mother than it not rotting around her. Without the mother's circulatory system the fetus would run out of oxygen within minutes. Without the mother eating, the fetus would starve. Without the mother's body warmth, the fetus would go into hypothermia. On and on.
Basically, unless you bring mom back right quick, the baby has acquired the dead condition. Whether that is reversible would probably depend on when the fetus gets a soul, which is a whole nother can of worms. In any event, it is unlikely that a fetal soul that had just died horrifically would feel any pressing desire to return to the world of the living, so most Resurrection magic would probably fail.
I would expect that you could build an item or create a spell that would be a 'gestation tank' if you wanted. Most likely though unless you had it ready ahead of time, you won't be able to save the baby.
All that said, GMs can do what you want, and you should never let mere reality intrude with a great story, but you would probably have to think about these problems (and have some solution to them) to make the story believable.
One the other hand, a bad guy passing off some other child as the baby of the dead mother would be just the sort of nasty thing a bad guy might do to mess with the heroes....
The pre-prepared gestation tank idea is definitely very feasible, because I've already established that he has a small collection of fetus homunculi, which he refers to as his "Leather Babies". They must have come from somewhere.
I may finally have a solution. You need to cast Permanency and Sands of Time.
SANDS OF TIME
School necromancy; Level cleric 3, sorcerer/wizard 3, witch 3
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S
Range touch
Target touched creature or object
Duration 10 minutes/level or instantaneous (see text)
Saving Throw none; Spell Resistance yes
You temporarily age the target, immediately advancing it to the next age category. The target immediately takes the age penalties to Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution for its new age category, but does not gain the bonuses for that category. A creature whose age is unknown is treated as if the spell advances it to middle age. Ageless or immortal creatures are immune to this spell.If you cast this on an object, construct, or undead creature, it takes 3d6 points of damage + 1 point per caster level (maximum +15) as time weathers and corrodes it. This version of the spell has an instantaneous duration.
Technically RAW this doesn't work because Sands of Time isn't listed for Permanency but it makes sense for your scenario. And if you are going to use a GM fiat, this is the time. This would let the baby rapidly age to a survivable age.
You other option which does work as written would be to Reincarnate the baby's soul into another body. But I prefer the Sands of Time route.
This is brilliant.
I think we have a winner.
Well, it appears you already have your answer, so this is unnecessary, but sustenance + adapt body manifested by an egoist (at 8th they get the ability to manifest personal powers on somebody else) might work without a womb... but I imagine it would take the same amount of time as normal for the fetus to grow. It would also require adapt body to be manifested as a 13th level manifester and would have to be renewed around three times a day without some sort of further augmentation.
What? Psionics wasn't 3rd party in 3.5... Really, though. The Sands of Time solution, I think, is easiest, though I did like Mark Hooper's suggestion of Magnificent Mansion. It makes sense. I also liked the combination of simulacrum + baleful transposition. I was going to suggest placing a ring of sustenance on the umbilical cord, but that was before I noticed the one week attunement time of the ring. What about transforming the fetus into something else that could survive for a while, like baleful polymorph, and dismiss/dispel the effect after enough time has passed that s/he could survive on their own?
Also, having seen tiny babies in a NICU, I recommend somewhat regular castings of delay pain. Just a thought.