Doppelganger Egg
These are not, in spite of their name, the eggs of actual Doppelgangers...
Origin:
Doppelganger Eggs are an Alchemical product. They are only a bit less expensive than a Philosopher's Stone and require extensive research as well as rare and expensive materials. This is the sort of secret one could obtain by dealing with demons and the like.
Magical Properties:
The Egg will hatch a clone of the last creature to touch it. It takes 3 hours for the egg to hatch after being touched. The hatchling will be the same size as freshly born or hatched creatures normally are for the species in question. Prematurely cracking the egg destroys it and yields nothing but egg white and yoke. No signs of what it could have been are visible. The new being will grow at a rate normal for its species.
There is a high probability that the being emerging from the egg will 'imprint' on the next being it sees, with the exception being the True Doppelganger Egg below.
Greater Doppelganger Egg:
As normal, but a full adult being emerges from the egg - growing to full size rapidly. In this case, the clone has most of the original being's memories, but its personality will be randomized.
True Doppelganger Egg:
As a Greater doppelganger egg, but the memories and personality are identical. They are still distinct beings and do not share a soul or consciousness.
Plot Ideas:
The New King
The Kings enemies are plotting to replace the king with a magically dominated clone. The PCs could interfere with the attempts to obtain the components or ritual, or they may be involved after the Clone has replaced the true King.
Another Big Baddie.
In the land of Somesuch, there is a vast and powerful beast that has been magically bound with unbreakable fetters. The Villain wants it, but instead of the herculean task of breaking it free, he simply seeks to clone it with a Doppleganger egg. Again the PCs could either prevent this, or deal with the aftermath.
We Need One
For whatever reason, the PCs get roped into searching out the rare components for the egg, and perhaps helping guard the alchemist during its manufacture. Perhaps someone of power needs a new host body - the close is fully sentient, so this would pose potential ethical challenges.
A New God
Someone, someone managed to get a demigod to touch the egg unawares, and now there is a cloned God in existence. What type of havok will this bring?
Notes:
I leave it up to the individual GM as to whether the subject touching the egg must be alive for this to function. In the case where dead beings can be cloned, well, this opens up a lot of potential and abuse... You may in fact like that.
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? Responses (11)
Neat idea! Short and to the point.
Would necessitate elaborating on what 'touching' involves. If it is really easy to activate, a slight brush of your fingertips, it would be useful for significantly different things than if it involved some sort of active effort on the imprinter's part.
I must complain that the examples are all examples that work with any doppleganger, and don't really require the egg. I see the value of the egg approach being a portable cloning device - sneak into the dungeons to copy the valuable prisoner sentenced there for eternal damnation (such as Loki?) or as a nuisance in which the dungeon design has a bunch of these and you don't know what a given egg might hatch into...
The dead/alive thing is AWESOME.
I'm leaning towards any significant contact. Its an alchemical object, not a spell, so it is not especially user-friendly. Use non-leather gloves (to avoid cloning a cow :) ) when handling it.
The Egg is the starting physical form of the clone that appears later, so while you could replace it with something else, the process as I see it here is a physical one. Also, the result of this item is not a Doppelganger as in a shape-changing creature, but a real copy of the subject. For example, the effect cannot be dispelled and would persist even if subjected to powerful anti-magic effects. The magic of the egg ends when the new creature hatches.
You could have the perfect clone if it's a drop of blood with a much less reliable clone with a simple touch. Things could get weird if you mix the blood of a human and an animal and drop it on the egg. Maybe there is a threshold on how much DNA it needs before it can hatch like, a drop of blood, or 5 seconds of full hand contact, or 20 seconds of incidental meaning 20 people may touch it once or twice before it attempts to clone all of them combined into one.
I imagine you would have special carrying boxes with locks to make sure it isn't touched accidentally.
I love it, and I want to port it over into the Cosmic Era as a piece of Imbrian technology. In records, not an actual surviving egg.
Feel Free! :)
Queen Yocasta would love to have one of these.
Good one. The Greater Doppelganger egg presents some interesting social, psychological and neurological problems. If you have all the memories of angry bitter judgemental person, but the personality of a logical happy individual how will you behave? You know the kind of stuff older roleplayers like to play with...
On a meta level could you use the True Doppleganger egg as a save point in Game. If your PCs are dedicated enough, they could make this happen once you enter it into the game world.
'Okay, get your eggs out and touch them before we raid the inner sanctum of Donald the Golden Wind Dragon.'
I like this a lot. Can't say much more than what has already been said. Well done.
Fun one! Feels like an old-school magic item. I also like that its an alchemical process as opposed to a *poof* spell effect. For some reason, I find myself recalling that Chimera Quest from a few weeks ago, and figuring that a 'Chimera Egg' could also be a 'thing.'
I suppose. The egg would begin its process after at least 3 different kinds of creatures had touched it. The resulting creature would be a Chimera of them.
Very neat, concept would terrify me in almost any campaign.