|
Let's say someone has small, useless vestigial bat-like wings, each of a span at about two hands long growing from their shoulders. These wings are, along with other things, a source of shame and self-loathing for this person.
Is it seriously pushing past the boundries of believability for said person to, in a fit of near madness:
1. Manage to get the necessary angle and leverage to sever/hack/saw off those wings by himself.
2. Manage to not pass out until the deed was done. Constitution is 10. Strength would likely be 12 at most at the time.
3. Manage to stay crazy enough through all that pain until it was done. No outside chemical influence involved.
I'm just wondering if any of this would clear with players at the table who happen to be knowledgable in medicine, anatomy, and criminology or whether I should go back to having another character handling this makeshift surgery.
That and whether or not it's time to dial back the personal tragedy in this PC's backstory. It think I'm over quota with this guy.
1) Sure. Can you touch your own shoulder blade? With a tool, that would be even easier. Not saying it would be easy, but sure.
2) Con I would use to determine whether or not he bleeds out from the damage he's doing to himself. Maybe even have him actually roll damage with the knife or what have you. Give the wings a small hp threshold to come off. I would actually use a will save or two to see if he can grit his teeth through the pain.
3) Is he crazy or driven? If it's dementia...maybe. If he's considered and made a decision to do it and has a history of resolve...sure. After a will save or two, maybe one for each wing.
|
I'm not a doctor, nor a self-mutilation expert, but having grown up on a farm, I can tell you that the easiest way to remove unwanted parts from an animal is to tourniquette the hell out of it. To castrate bulls, we'd slip a thick rubber band about the size of a dime (when contracted) onto a special pliars-looking doohickey that would stretch it out, slide the part-to-be-removed through the doohickey and release, causing the rubber band to snap into place. (Yes, this process requires one to grab a bull's balls and shove them into the device with one's hand. One of many, many reasons I am no longer a farmer.)
Oh, awesome, I found
pictures at Castrator.com (pictures of the doohickey, not of bull's testicles! Find your own pictures of those!). (Why, God, why is there a site called castrator.com?)
Blood flow would cut off immediately, pain appeared to end fairly quickly (as the nerves died, I imagine), and within a week or so, the bull's boys would fall off, and end up getting eaten by the dogs. Because of the time it took to happen, the bull didn't even bleed. (The site says 20 to 40 days, but I don't remember it taking that long. Then again, it wasn't my balls in a vice, so the bull probably remembers it better than I do...)
While a fantasy character isn't going to have any handy rubber bands lying around, the same thing could be done by tying string around the winglet, and then knotting so tight that it's painful, and then letting lack of circulation kill the affected tissue. Wire would work as well, but is more likely to cut into the flesh and cause all sorts of bleeding and infection and crying and stuff.
I'd go with twine, or a leather strap. Leather would work best, I suspect, because you can squeeze it on dry as tight as you can manage by hand, and then splash cold water on your back to soak the leather and cause it to shrink and grow even tighter.
And now, after this fun chat about castration and severing one's own body parts, I need dinner.
Seriously, amp down the Emo. Self-mutilation does not a hero make.
I did some graduate work in evolutionary anthropology, including human and non-human primate anatomy and morphology. Is this a human character we're talking about? When you say 'vestigial' I think of body parts that served some function in an ancestor (rudimentary limbs in whales, because their ancestors were terrestrial), but that no longer serve that function in the extant species (though, having become integrated in other ways, they may not be completely useless). Why would a human have vestigial wings? I realize fantasy campaign worlds are different, but we're confident that humans have no winged ancestors.
|
|
1) Sure. Can you touch your own shoulder blade? With a tool, that would be even easier. Not saying it would be easy, but sure.
Yep, figured that much. My concern was the loss of leverage making it highly unlikely. I know I could touch my shoulder blade, but I'm not certain I could bat a determined monkey of off it, let alone something actually attatched to it.
I'm not a doctor, nor a self-mutilation expert,
:D
more words
I feel dead inside, Set.
And I have to eat now too...
So much for the Mongolian meatballs...
It's an idea though. This is more of a spur of the moment thing, but if it goes back to another party doing this, yeah, that would work really well.
Seriously, amp down the Emo. Self-mutilation does not a hero make.
Nah, it's what he becomes long afterwards(paladin) that'll do that. And I'm allowed! I always play Well-Adjusted Guy, even in WW/CoC games. ;)
Why would a human have vestigial wings? I realize fantasy campaign worlds are different, but we're confident that humans have no winged ancestors.
Tiefling. Humanoid with fiendish blood that plays havoc on their genetics. The possibilities get pretty wild with the planetouched "races".
Oh, awesome, I found
pictures at Castrator.com (pictures of the doohickey, not of bull's testicles! Find your own pictures of those!). (Why, God, why is there a site called castrator.com?)
You just made my day and reaffirmed my love of the internet.
|
Don't ask me what I've seen, I won't tell you.
2 and 3 could be done, if one was mentally ill enough.
If you think you're over your quota with the in-your-faceness of it all, you could always dial it back.
Remember, the creepiest horror is sometimes the subtlest. Alfred Hitchcock was a master because he was a master of this.
|
|
Remember, the creepiest horror is sometimes the subtlest. Alfred Hitchcock was a master because he was a master of this.
Oh yeah, I agree on that. (it's a big part of why I feel the older Silent Hills are better at what they do than the newest) But this isn't really for a horror campaign, though that probably seems the case from the opening post. It's all just backstory for a Kingmaker PC.
Guy would be one of two tiefling twins born to a human knight descended from a paladin that fell for unknown reasons during one of the Mendevian crusades and returned to Brevoy with a seemingly human infant. The paladin remained faithful but for some reason never sought atonement. The child was adopted as his own. Three generations later and the family name has quietly carried the shame of the paladin's fall from grace even as each generation produced knights that struggled vainly to restore the family name.
Then the latest head of the household sired twins. They turned out to be full blown tieflings. His wife went a little crazy and was put away in sanitarium. The father kept his secret shamed locked away in his manor's cellar, where they were tended to mostly by the house's butler. The father slowly edged towards craziness himself, taking out all of his shame and self-loathing on his children. Eventually said twins were convinced that they were wicked, horrible things who deserved the beatings they got. Later, the father got lucky and sired another child with a prostitute. This one's tiefling traits were restricted to pointed ears and one eye being slitted, all of which were easily "fixed". One murdered prostitute and hasty adoption later, the father had a proper heir and the twins were next on the chopping block. The butler managed to sneak them out, setting them loose on the streets where life got a lot better.
They were eventually picked up by the city's church of Iomedae. The sister dealt with the shift in environments much better than the brother, who remained convinced that he was some sort of evil demonspawn unworthy of such kindness because it had been drilled into him for so long, even as he desperately wanted acceptance from the goddess and clergy that had taken them in. Even though it was a better environment than they had, the prejudices against fiendblooded tieflings were everpresent, even amongst some of the clergy. It came to a head when, at the age of thirteen, he managed to sneak into the empty chapel one night, took up the sacred longsword at the altar, and chopped his own wings off. His sister and the priests heard the screams and found him bleeding out, his wings placed before him like an offering or sacrifice, barely in time to save his life. At that point it was clear the kid needed a lot more help than he had been getting, and he and eventually his sister were sent to a monastery where his mind and soul could eventually be healed.
Fast forward to the present and he's as well-adjusted as he can be, though he and his sister both cling zealously to their faith as if they feared any weakness would allow them to give in to the evil they remained convinced is in their blood, even as they've both managed to accept what they are. He's also permanently physically marked by his childish attempt at cleansing himself of evil; the stumps of his wings are an ever present reminder of that.
I think I've got it mostly figured out now, thanks guys.
Don't ask me what I've seen, I won't tell you.
2 and 3 could be done, if one was mentally ill enough.
If you think you're over your quota with the in-your-faceness of it all, you could always dial it back.
Actually it doesn't take being mentally ill.
If a person starts cutting and continues cutting then their body will eventually flood their brain with stimulants that will cause euphoria and help relieve the pain. This is a survival trait that has allowed some humans to survive some extreme circumstances.It has also lead to sadists but thats another discussion.
Usually thinking its important enough to require the cutting is were the mental strangeness comes in (if their life isn't in danger).