We aim to please.
> Well, the players presented the general situation: More or
> less: "There is a terrible Beast around and the midwife thinks that
> It is the son", and we have discussed about it a bit. Now, I think
> they are waiting some work for my part (with your help is fine ;-),
> unknown mysteries and things like that.
In that case, I would probably go for something where the kid is powering/manifesting the monster but it is not physically the child.
The players (at the very least the midwife) will go quickly to see what the kid does when the creature manifests. This keeps it a bit more mysterious when they find the child peacefully (or perhaps not peacefully) asleep.
> Ten years or so, I think.
So of an age where the child can interact, be aware, and cause trouble even when not monstering; excellent.
> The players told me they want a
> general leitmotif for the campaign: "redemption". All the PC's have
> some kind of stigma from the past and they want to remove it. There
> is not a predefined moral to the story, we don't know at this moment
> what will be the result.
Oooh, an Angel series. Lovely. Redemption stories are great fun, especially if you make it very clear that a story where someone fails to redeem themselves can be every bit as compelling as one where they do.
> The Chaos taint was suggested by the players as a possibility
> (althought I told them that Chaos/Cosmos opposition is not as
> important in Carmania as Good/Evil, Truth/Lie, etc.) For me the good
> point of Chaos is 'more ambiguity (in Carmania) than Ganesatarus'
> taint' (but Darkness is also ambiguous).
I suppose (due to the Lunar influence) Chaos is less obviously a problem. I would go for something with a Light/Darkness duality, which is neither straight Truth/Lie or Chaos/Cosmos, and thus max out the ambiguity.
> -Physical 'deformity': The creature is androgynus. This is
> ambiguous, because most people would consider this as a deformity;
> but, also, an androgynus could be a symbol of cosmic unity, mystical
> awareness, superation of polarities, and things like that. Perhaps a
> road to redemption at long term (or an important character in the
> HeroWars, I played with a prophetised child in Glorantha, but with
> another group of players).
Androgynous is cool. The other option, if you are splitting is that the creature is female, and some kind of unification with the son (if achieved) will result in a single androgynous being.
> -Dual nature: They are twins, but they are only one body (so the
> witch didn't realised it). There are two minds (and souls?), one of
> them blessed by Idovanus and the other cursed by Ganesatarus. The
> Good Side appears to be silly, but it is only a sort of inactivity.
> The Evil side appears to be clever, but he has not a clear purpose.
Ahh, so the child has a split personality (well, 2 souls). So sometimes the child itself will be actively plotting against them, and sometimes not? Depending on who is in charge?
> The mother of the creature is an initiate of Natha; she knows the
> creature is alive because the Goddess has sent a magical dream about
> balance, opposites, etc.
Works well for me. I notice someone else has already brought up the JagNatha and mother of the god of murder ideas. (I, myself, had a group of holy assassins who were Nathics in my campaign.)
> -The problems: The Beast is created by the evil-side (heroformed,
> invoked, created? I'm not sure).
You can go either way, I think. I prefer the beast external to the child. But since you have a good and evil child in one body, I would say you can go either way here.
> The players could believe the beast
> is the child and try to save it (not to kill it, not to hurt it, but
> defeating it, and a lot of dramatic tension). Finally, if the
> players defeat the beast and take the child back home they could
> think everything has ended. But there are more problems: Perhaps, at
> the first time, the farmers want to kill the child, then (if the PCs
> save him) the evil side continues doing terrible things (and the
> farmers come back), etc.
You also have the possibility of reconciling the two souls, of trying to split them into two bodies, or of teaching the good side to manifest its own creature.
Sounds like they will have fun.
LC
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