Duck Mini Pack - Natural History 1

From: Sérgio Mascarenhas <sermasalmeida_at_mail.telepac.pt>
Date: Mon, 11 Aug 1997 23:26:59 +0100

REPRODUCTION, GROWTH AND LIFE EXPECTATIONS

1. Gestation and childhood A consequence of the Yelm curse was that ducks couldn't lay their eggs like other birds. Latter, the magic of BBG (described in my DMP-part 1 message to Glorantha Digest) allowed ducks to have living children. As a consequence the reproduction of ducks goes like that:
   - - The initial phase of matting and egg bearing is equal to what would
   happen if Yelm didn't course the ducks. In other words, ducks reproduction occurs through eggs like with any other bird. The major difference is that duck egg's shell is flexible and soft (more like a reptile then like a bird).
   - - Carrying an egg almost doesn't disturb the mother duck. (unlike what
   happens to most mammals.) The mother can continue living her life undisturbed. She will be ready to resume her normal life within one or two hours of giving birth.
   - - But duck females cannot lay the egg in the same way of other birds.
   Instead they must carry it like a mammal carries the foetus. The female duck will carry the egg for a time equivalent to: the time a normal female duck would carry a egg before laying it; the timeit would take her to hatch it; MORE the time it would take a young duck - before the curse - to learn to walk and fly.
   - - A consequence is that the duck will be born much latter then other birds,
   even latter then the equivalent human child. When a duck is born, it will take him only some days before he starts to walk and speak (about the same as a 1,5 year old human child).
   - - The gestation period for ducks is two seasons. A female needs a rest of a
   season before getting pregnant again, what means that she can have two children each year.

In conclusion, ducks are birds which means that they reproduce through eggs. The main difference is that the mother duck carries the egg until the moment for the young duck to hatch. Ducks are not mammals and reproduce in a different way. The interesting aspect is that ducks' reproduction is more similar to the way reptiles reproduce then to how birds reproduce.

2. Growth
As was stated before, when a duck is born he is almost able to survive by himself. He can walk and his diet is the same as that of more aged ducks. That doesn't mean that young ducks have more chances of survival than human children. In fact, the mortality rate among just born and very young ducks is very high:
Ducks weren't touched by the spell of Chalana Arroy. They don't have protection against the dangers of childhood. (To simulate this in RQ terms, when rolling a duck PC sum all the characteristic points below average - if you rolled 9 on INT, that's 4 below average - multiply by five and roll it has a percentage number; if you roll above, the duck survived the risks of childhood; if you roll bellow, the duck died in his youth).

Ducks attain the equivalent of human's teenage when they are 5 or 6 years old. At the end of their childhood they can survive by themselves if they happen to be left alone in the wilds but they'll lack social skills and the longer they live by themselves, the harder it will be to recover. Their teens are unusually long according to human standards: about 10 to 15 years.

3. Adults
Ducks attain adulthood about the same time than an human creature, which means about when they're 16.
Unlike humans, they will remain almost unchanged through their adult state: for the next 50 years (more 10, less 10 years) they will not feel the effect of age.

4. Preparation for death
Eventually ducks will attain the age of aging. Unlike humans, aging is very kick taking only 2 to 5 years. In fact, most ducks that live for so long are prepared to understand when their moment has come. When they notice the signs of aging they will abandon the mundane world by their own will.

Sergio Mascarenhas

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