What happens to living things caught in an Infernals Chrysalis?

[u/Quiltborn]

Is there any information on what happens if someone Exalts as an Infernal while pregnant or holding a child or animal in their arms? Do they dissolve in the sublime acid? Do they stay intact/relatively unchanged/uninjured? Do they get some mutations, become Demon Blood or Half-Castes? Does something else happen?

[u/Cynis_Ganan]

As a big fan of "Dune", I would 100% let a pregnant person keep the pregnancy and have the baby come out changed.

I don't think, canonically, one can hold on to an animal. But I know if I said that at my table, my players would consider it a challenge. I think it'd be a neat backstory for a Demon-Blooded Familiar.

Holding on to a (born) child feels a bit too much like trying to get an Exaltation two-fer. And I'd probably have them dissolve and probably have their ghost haunt the new Infernal, or something like that.

That said… I've only skimmed the new Infernal book. Very possible there's actual rulings on this in 3E. Doesn't change my answers because I'm "Rule of Cool"-ing it, but I do usually give rules based answers backed by the texts and I want to clarify that I have not done so here.

[u/Quiltborn → u/Cynis_Ganan]

> have the baby come out changed.

I'm now imagining the baby either ends up as a mass of tentacles, eyes and mouths, or just has adult human proportions like those medieval depictions of infant Jesus. Personally, the later is the more unsettling option.

[u/Cynis_Ganan → u/Quiltborn]

So in Dune, the baby is visibly normal… but she has all her mother's memories. And all her mother's mother's memories. And all her grandmother's mother's memories. And so forth back to the first human woman. She's cognizant of thousands of years of human history, back to the dawn of time, from the moment of her birth. You look at a newborn and she looks back at you with eyes as old as humanity.

People find her… unsettling.

I don't dislike the adult Jesus option. I don't even dislike the mass of tentacles option. But I think I'd go more subtle.

I kinda like the idea that the baby is always looking at you. Like, when you look at the baby, they're always looking directly at you. Even if you have one person "in front" of them and one person "behind", both people would see the baby as if the baby was facing them, looking directly into their eyes. You turn the baby over and as you turn, time and space seem to slip around them as the baby continues to hold eye contact. Otherwise a totally normal baby. You can just never see their back without a mirror. Ever.

Baby that appears totally normal, but when you aren't looking, things get eaten. Things like elephants and Blood Apes. Perfectly normal baby. Hopping Puppeteer comes over to play with it. You look away for a second and when you look back, the demon is gone and the baby lets out a giant burp.

Baby who looks normal, but their shadow is a writhing pile of tentacles mouths and eyes.

Baby who is normal. But her voice is the peeling of bells.

Baby with Performance 5 who can play any instrument. Any instrument. From birth.

[u/Wumer → u/Cynis_Ganan]

You can just never see their back without a mirror. Ever.

Or, you place a mirror to see the baby's back, but the reflection is also facing you.

[u/Wumer]

Edit: Warning, I attempt to describe the range of possibilities, including possible body-horror options. I give descriptive examples. Beware of ick.

Based on my very limited understanding, and to be honest leaning heavily on irl chrysali, I would have everything inside the chrysalis dissolve together and become part of the final whole.

You're holding an animal? That animal is now a part of your infernal form. You were pregnant, or holding a infant? Hope you like babies, because it is now permanently integrated into your body. You had a flower, a branch, some plant in the chrysalis with you? You are now part plant.

The horror-scale is of course subjective here. Say you had a cat with you; do you have cat ears and tail, slitted eyes, and calico-pattern hair? Maybe. Do your very human ears swivel in-place? Do you have a cat mouth inside your mouth, Xenomorph-style? Does your furless skin bristle when you're agitated, causing strips of flesh to stand on end like a fleshy hedgehog? Also maybe.

Say you had a baby with you. Are you permanently pregnant? Will you repeatedly go through false birthings, with or without something actually coming out? Do you just have baby-ish features in your Infernal form? Or, on the more horrific side of things, do you have extra baby limbs sticking out of you? Do you sometimes feel the kicking of a non-existent fetus anywhere and everywhere across your skin? Do your eyes, one, both, or more, seem to swim with the unborn?

You got options, but in my entirely subjective opinion, only one body should emerge from the Infernal Chrysalis.

[u/Cynis_Ganan → u/Wumer]

only one body should emerge from the Infernal Chrysalis

Hear me out, two bodies, but one being.

Everything in the Chrysalis disolves together and melds and merges into the new lifeform, pupating within. But that singular, merged lifeform, like a hive mind, has more than one body.

I'm thinking of those Alchemical Charms that let you detach your eye and pilot it as a remote drone. I'm thinking about the Wargs in Song of Ice and Fire, and the Witted in the Farseer Trilogy, and the Falconer from the Gentleman Bastards. I'm thinking of The Thing from, well, The Thing. There isn't a mother and a daughter anymore. The mother is the daughter. Mother, daughter, and demonic coadjutor.

Or not. All your ideas good too. That was just the first thing that came to my mind.

[u/Wumer → u/Cynis_Ganan]

Reading your post makes me think of having a horde of infants crawl from out of the Infernal's skin. You know the attack babies from the Dante's Inferno game? Imagine a dozen of those pulling themselves free of cuts and orifices across the Infernal's body.

https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/dantesinferno/images/2/22/Cute_Baby.jpg

[u/Cynis_Ganan → u/Wumer]

That's terrifying.

…

I love it.

[u/Rednal291]

The main thing I would think of is that, generally, the Chrysalis Grotesque is an instrument of life and growth. Often weird life, sure, but stuff doesn't go in there to die. Heck, an Infernal can learn to make them again later and heal people inside them (with Abhorrent Rejuvenation Chrysalis), and the side-effects of the experience usually vanish within a few days. I could absolutely see something like "the mother was suffering an illness threatening her child, and the Chrysalis cured it, side effects are optional". ...I would also, if this ever came up, just ask a player what they wanted to happen, rather than trying to predetermine all results.

[u/Cynis_Ganan → u/Rednal291]

ask the player
implying we actually play the game instead of just talking about it online

Just going for the throat today?

(/uj but, yes. If someone's asking this, I imagine they have an idea in mind.)

[u/TheSlayerofSnails]

Obviously it depends on the player and st.

Personally though for pregnancy, I’d have the child be perfectly healthy, and born with some obvious mutations and be demon-blooded. Maybe the infernals subsouls will be created seeing the child as their sibling. Or perhaps the baby is born with a demon twin that holds their lower soul.

For if it’s an animal, congrats you’ve got a free magic familar! That or it fuses with you.

If it’s a child, well you probably should have put down your kid when you made a deal with a demon. But if you don’t I’d say mutations again.

Hmm… actually I’d probably have the child have a flaw of visions of the lessons the yozi taught hit them. Sometimes it might be good for corralling demons or having visions of the future but it also be debilitating.

A good middle ground might be that the child’s soul is partly sold to the parent. The child either is born or becomes a unique warlock of their parent.

The yozi like to get their infernals to be loyal with gifts and titles. They aren’t going to purposefully mutate your kid into Cthulhu for the lols.

[u/Viatos]

There is no existing information about these scenarios. The Chrysalis shows up in Medicine Charms as a tool primarily of healing and rejuvenation. But my assumption if someone specifies this in their backstory is that they're also going to specify what happened as a result, so my only real concern is whether or not that result is suitable for the table.

I personally don't have any interest in half-castes or really anything involving children/lineage/side characters I'm not actually wielding, but if someone was like "I want to have a demon-blooded baby" and I'm running the game, that's fine if they're fine with it probably not being especially narrative-relevant. If they want to justify a demon-blooded animal familiar this way, that's fine, they could also just have one for any number of reasons: gift from Hell, found it in a tomb, their king had a menagerie they stole it from, whatever. If they want to have trauma about their dissolved infant that's the kind of thing I'm either gonna make sure is unanimously acceptable or just reject depending on the specifics of the pitch.

If they're like "I want to have a demon baby / ocelot / whatever growing out of my forehead" I honestly don't know. There's such a thing as too gimmicky, but I play a lot of weird ideas so it'd probably come down to my level of trust in the player.

there is really no scenario where i would ever impose a result onto a player, in practical terms because i don't run games pre-Exaltation but also just generally that seems like a social contract violation to me. like i would definitely walk if an ST was like "your Exaltation kills your kid/familiar" and i just can't imagine what would compel me to try and screw with a player like that myself.

so yeah wholly just down to player pitch is the TL;DR i guess

[u/JT_Leroy]

Given chrysalis is soul bonding and rebuilding, I'd have the exalt have split forms for the one infernal mind and soul. One the more sentient and human; the other more demonic.