I saw a writing prompt where the witch was like "one of these is the baby you wished for, the other is a changling! This is the price I was promised! You must choose!" And the mom is like "fuck that action, I'ma wisdom of Solomon that shit" and just grabbed both babies and raised them as siblings.
'I must choose eh? But you didn't say when or how!' and so the mother created an elaborate scheme to obfuscate her words, raising both children thereafter, until her death. Centuries later, the witch returns, using chatgpt to break the cipher she can now claim the lives of one half of this quiet little gaelic village.
I live for that sort of thing. I call it the Literary Occasionalist school of magic. Figures prominently in any tabletop I play. Recently played a videogame where
spoiler
An evil witch took over a temple and used it as a base of operations. You need to pursue her, but here's the dilemma. The witch put a hex on the nice introverted priest, if anyone trespasses into the inner sanctum the priest dies. Now, as it happens I was a 'trickster' so I'm into bullshit magic. So I say 'well this is technically your temple innit, just ordain me into the evil cult and i won't be trespassing nothing'. And it works.
There isn't a ton of content like that in the game but what we had was really fun. Especially towards the end.
I saw a writing prompt where the witch was like "one of these is the baby you wished for, the other is a changling! This is the price I was promised! You must choose!" And the mom is like "fuck that action, I'ma wisdom of Solomon that shit" and just grabbed both babies and raised them as siblings.
'I must choose eh? But you didn't say when or how!' and so the mother created an elaborate scheme to obfuscate her words, raising both children thereafter, until her death. Centuries later, the witch returns, using chatgpt to break the cipher she can now claim the lives of one half of this quiet little gaelic village.
Only question is... which half?
I love all the exact words legalistic pedantry in folk tales and myths. "We agreed that you could have his head, not that you could harm his neck!"
I live for that sort of thing. I call it the Literary Occasionalist school of magic. Figures prominently in any tabletop I play. Recently played a videogame where
spoiler
An evil witch took over a temple and used it as a base of operations. You need to pursue her, but here's the dilemma. The witch put a hex on the nice introverted priest, if anyone trespasses into the inner sanctum the priest dies. Now, as it happens I was a 'trickster' so I'm into bullshit magic. So I say 'well this is technically your temple innit, just ordain me into the evil cult and i won't be trespassing nothing'. And it works.
There isn't a ton of content like that in the game but what we had was really fun. Especially towards the end.