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There's this sheep, and they accept milk products for potions. The potions affect the user however they wanted. However, if the bargain isn't held up on the person's end, they end up getting filled with wool and end up suffocating to death.
There's this sheep, and they accept milk products for potions.
Why milk products? Why potions? How does a sheep manage these kinds of transactions when it doesn't even have opposable thumbs?
The potions affect the user however they wanted.
And if they wanted to be able to convince the sheep to give them more potions for free?
However, if the bargain isn't held up on the person's end, they end up getting filled with wool and end up suffocating to death.
Why? Seems like a way to guarantee that the sheep would never get their end of the bargain.
I'm not too sure about this. It does seem like a pretty fantastical idea that would work great with the sort of hippie-wizard vibe of the Serpent's Hand GoI, but as a Foundation document it might just be too silly and random to take seriously. Why does this sheep do what it does? What is its goal? How did it get started with potions of all things, and what is its story beyond seemingly being a weird merchant NPC that's comparable to pretty much any potion seller in RPGs and other games?
Thank you for the feedback! I'll try to answer this as best I can.
My reasoning for the milk products at first was that it was little kids who first found them, and so they grew sort of accustomed to accepting that as a payment, and then growing dependant on having it. Sort of like an addiction I was thinking.
As for why potions, it's what they're able to pull out of their witch hat, per what they want to pull out. (I might actually change this, you being up a good point of why Potions, I just am not sure currently what else they could give as a transaction).
They kinda just accept the milk by eating the container along side it, and spitting out the bottom half. (Again, subject to change).
I probably should've specified that for potions they only effect the physical body of the person, that's my bad.
The sheep's origin, uhm. So this had been something I was debating in my head for a while, and wasn't the most sure on how to tackle. My first thought was to have them originally be a person, who messed with some dark magic and something ritualistic, and ending up trading their body for that of a sheep. Since people are often compared to sheep I thought this could fit decently well, as the ritual was mocking them.
Another idea was to have them come from another plane of existance, or something where she got lost in our reality. I think this would be a bit more messy, so I haven't put the most amount of thought into it.
The sheep does what it does becuase it originally wanted to help heal and cure stuff. However, with the addiction of dairy creeping in, they started to go a bit more out of the way.
I went with the potion route, since witches in most media's and stories either make potions and concoctions from a large pot, or do spells, I wanted to go down one of these routes. So far I've been focusing on potions.
Any ideas and suggestions are always welcome, help is always greqtly appreciated!
Long post collapsed. ~Zyn
little kids who first found them, and so they grew sort of accustomed to accepting that as a payment
Little kids routinely have milk products with them that they give to random sheep?
As for why potions, it's what they're able to pull out of their witch hat, per what they want to pull out
Wouldn't it make more sense to make more sheep-related products?
My first thought was to have them originally be a person, who messed with some dark magic and something ritualistic, and ending up trading their body for that of a sheep. Since people are often compared to sheep I thought this could fit decently well, as the ritual was mocking them.
This doesn't explain why they trade potions for milk products. Also, if they can make potions that affect physical forms, why don't they just turn themselves back human?
I feel like you need a more consistent backstory that isn't so random. Also, I'm not sure dairy products are necessarily even good for sheep?
In my town about 10 years ago it kinda was common to see a child with milk or juice when they were out with a parent.
Okay the sheep product thing is actually super good and I don't know why I didn't think of it sooner. So now I'm thinking like, maybe they give different garments of clothing that effect them, like hats or sweaters. Thank you for that!
Also you're probably right on the milk thing, so I'm gonna move the bargain chip over to Vegetables, as sheep seem to super love those.
Their backstory is something I'm absolutely struggling with. What I've thought of so far is the possibility that it's the hat that gives the sheep their anomalous characteristics. (Possibly allowing them to convert their wool to the garments, or some other force is allowing it, or another thing).
Thank you again, this has been enjoyable and you've been a big help!
My reasoning for the milk products at first was that it was little kids who first found them, and so they grew sort of accustomed to accepting that as a paymentand so they grew sort of accustomed to accepting that as a payment, and then growing dependant on having it. Sort of like an addiction I was thinking
maybe instead of potions it could be candy, since little kids would discover it. the addictive thing is interesting though, highly addictive candy sounds cool.
Oh sick that would work and be pretty Coolio, thank you!
Eh… if the sheep gave out highly addictive candy, parents would be upset and try to keep kids away from the sheep (who would essentially be dealing drugs at that point).
Nice woolen mittens and hats wouldn't be as much of an issue. Parents would probably encourage the kids to bargain with the sheep for those.
I can get behind the sheep maybe being a sort of imagination-fueled entity that goes around eating unwanted vegetables from kid's school lunches and gives them wool things to wear. The sheep has a name and when the kids' parents ask about the clothes they just say that their friend [sheep's name] gave it to them as a gift. The Foundation enacts containment involving setting up a hip new school-based clothing charity/nonprofit for wool items with a mascot that's a sheep with the same name. Then they just run disinformation campaigns since they know they can't actually catch a sheep with imaginary powers fueled by children.
I dunno, that's how I would approach this.
I wasn't gonna make the candy addictive to children, I was saying more the sheep got addicted to them.
The foundation cover-up of them being a charity organization that goes around giving kids different woolen garments is certainly a fun idea. They'd probably become Keter at that point, unable to be contained. They could also appear in wintertimes of the local towns, following the winter season around the globe to give more kids more sweaters and hats, like during September to about February, they're in the northern hemisphere, and March to August they're in the southern hemisphere. Another way to spin it would probably be they just randomly go to a certain school based off the vegetable (and maybe candy) concentration at the school, along with if clothing is wanted/needed.
The Organization aspect could involve the witchiness, as kids would definitely see a sheep giving them clothes on a random day sometime during the school year as magical.
If the clothing was to stay magical, it's probably just become mundane things, but spells that helped each individual kid. Not sure about this part, but it could be cool to explore
If the clothing was to stay magical, it's probably just become mundane things, but spells that helped each individual kid.
I think this is a good way to go. A fair number of fairytale witches are benevolent and do things like give away magic swords to the main characters when they do something like sweep the floor in the witch's house. Maybe the sheep witch will give the good kids magical items if they do things like clean the sheep or give it things to eat.
Oooh, that does sound good. Vegetables are the baseline for the clothing, and candy or grooming/pets.
I've gotta come up with more spells, but a good baseline for now would probably be "Less sleepy", "Retain info better", and "Write faster". I might do some crazier stuff but that's gonna need some thought.
I've gotta come up with more spells, but a good baseline for now would probably be "Less sleepy", "Retain info better", and "Write faster". I might do some crazier stuff but that's gonna need some thought.
Maybe consider looking up some old folklore tales about grandmotherly witches? Or even children's books, like Babushka Baba Yaga (a witch who just wants to be a grandma, but everyone's scared that she'll eat their kids) and pretty much the entire Strega Nona series (she has a marvelous magic pot that makes endless pasta!).
I would enjoy reading about Grandma Sheep Witch.
Also, in case you need it, consider this a greenlight.
I shall look into those stories as soon as I get the chance! Thank you for all the help you offered, it made this really fun
Having read over the entire conversation with Zyn, I am inclined to go with the skip about a grandma witch in the form of a sheep.
To sum up:
SCP-XXXX is a witch that was transformed into a sheep. She really likes helping out children, so she goes around and makes deals at various schools. In return for candies or veggie snacks she gives the children little woolen articles of clothing that'll help them out in small ways.
Greenlight.
It sounds wholesome and fun. I'm down.
