Well, ok. High Level party has encountered a priestess of Lamashtu, completely insane human female, the usual. She's pregnant. The wizard used Polymorph Any Object on her. Turned her into a tree. Don't know why, first thing that came to mind.
Question is: What happens to the baby? DM had no idea. One argument was 'Polymorph targets the mother, not the baby, and the baby is thusly... shunted out in 6-month development form ew?' and the other was 'both are polymorphed together since the baby isn't a creature yet' and essentially it became a pro-life vs pro-choice debate, Arcane Magic style.
Without getting into the squicky political issues, what do you guys think would happen to an unborn child of a creature polymorhped into something that is decidedly NOT impregnate-able?
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Well, ok. High Level party has encountered a priestess of Lamashtu, completely insane human female, the usual. She's pregnant. The wizard used Polymorph Any Object on her. Turned her into a tree. Don't know why, first thing that came to mind.
Question is: What happens to the baby? DM had no idea. One argument was 'Polymorph targets the mother, not the baby, and the baby is thusly... shunted out in 6-month development form ew?' and the other was 'both are polymorphed together since the baby isn't a creature yet' and essentially it became a pro-life vs pro-choice debate, Arcane Magic style.
Without getting into the squicky political issues, what do you guys think would happen to an unborn child of a creature polymorhped into something that is decidedly NOT impregnate-able?
The baby is treated as gear and melds with her unharmed until she becomes unpolymorphed. Now as for receiving proper sustenance for that duration...
Btw, this isn't a ruling based on one creature vs. two. Had the same thing come up in one of my games with player using construct armor. If they are wearing it when they polymorph, BOOM, merges as gear. I figure the same logic would apply to something that's INSIDE you that applies to something you wear.
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There are a few options that I could see:
1.) The tree is pregnant, and in a few months, will give birth to a human child that will automatically receive the Magical Knack trait (or another appropriate trait). Assuming nothing happens to prevent it, I could see a dryad or other fey creatures taking special interest in the raising of the child OR Lamashtu could have the child be transformed in some way that pleased her.
2.) The tree is 'pollinated', and in a few months, will send out shoots or seeds that grow into a fine little sapling. Possibly a Ghoran.
3.) The polymorph puts all normal human biology on hold, and there is a tree in the place of the mother and child. The child is in perpetual stasis until the condition is removed or the tree is destroyed, much like a Flesh to Stone would put the person in stasis, keeping them from aging.
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This *is* a good opportunity to put in magical shenanigans that typically lead to sorcerer bloodlines. Have the party seek out a dryad/nymph/etc for advice (make a knowledge roll to figure this out?). This dryad/whatever tells the party she will take care of it, casts some obscure spell on the tree, then says the baby will be fine and she will take care of it. 3 months later, pregnancy complete, dryad/nymph/whatever gives birth to normal human baby that has either the Fey or Verdant bloodlines (or crossblood both).
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Or this could randomly develop into that horrible dryad/demon hybrid that I forget the name of (god, I remember it was on the daily bestiary, but I cannot find it for the life of me; someone with stronger google fu, please help). A nice mix of dryad magic, tree power, and lamashtu mojo seems like it could do that.
And it thus bursts from the mother's tree belly, rips the dryad's throat out, and then scurries off and comes back later after it is fully grown and ready to cause trouble for the party.
Sorry, but remember, this is Lamashtu cult babies we are talking about. I fully expect them to start teething at the 2nd trimester. This is less about a polymorph/pregnancy debate fridge horror, this is more about good old fashioned chest burster horror when that god is involved.
Forlarren. They're usually a nymph/demon hybrid but could probably be adapted.
yeah, that. Use that, and add on some verdant/fey sorcerer stuff, and you can get and encounter that messes with the rest of the party's heads.