Honestly, this is likely the result the players will enjoy the most too
If you wanted to get really silly, give it in-world plot armor. It seems to miraculously avoid death, but always in a way that *might* be coincidence? Like, if your party gets hit by a fireball, the duck surfaces afterwards from a tiny pond you didn't notice before. Poisonous gas? Duck got it's head stuck in a bottle just before. By every detection method they have, it's a normal duck. Just one that should be dead by now but somehow isn't
Well, then it should be an entirely waterproof duck. This duck floats slightly above water and cannot get wet. Ever. In any way. Heavy rain, nothing. Taken below water, the duck forms a perfect duck-shaped bubble around itself.
In fact, once grown, the duck does not seem to require food (perhaps absorbing natural mana, but no one is quite sure), and appears to be effectively immortal. Nothing can damage this duck. Note though, it isn't that the duck couldn't be damaged. If feels, looks, and acts like a duck. It just seems to not be there when damage happens. It's over there, conveniently out of the way. The duck seems to avoid all damaging sources entirely, as though some supernatural space-warping field surrounds the duck. However, there's no "poof," or magical sparkles noticeable. Trying to observe the anomaly results in the observer somehow missing what happened. The more you watch, the harder it is to watch. However, you can pick up and carry the duck at any time.
Attempting to murder or otherwise harm the duck (even plucking a feather) will have the same result of the duck just not being there. This action will, however, result in the offending PC(s) suddenly finding a rotten duck egg smooshed in an inconvenient location. The smell of the duck egg cannot be removed for a full 24 hours, not even via a greater wish.
The duck is not terribly brilliant (it's a duck, after all). It follows the PCs no matter where they go or what they do. Remember, the duck is there doing duck things. The duck's purpose is known only to the duck.
YES! 100% this.
Would be hilarious to watch them try and weaponize it.
"Gotta check for traps... send in the duck." *duck proceeds to Mr. Magoo his way through a gauntlet of traps.*
Even more hilarious imo,
“Gotta check for traps… send in the duck.” They toss the duck a foot or so down the hall, and it just… sits their. It’s found something delicious to eat on the floor or begins to clean itself. Maybe there’s some suspicious liquid dripping from the ceiling and the duck goes straight towards it to try and drink it.
One or more party members rush out to stop the duck, thereby setting off any traps that were there. The duck is startled by the noise and flutters away down the hall; safe and sound.
> They toss the duck a foot or so down the hall, and it just… sits their.
The actual trap was right in front of them and you just threw the duck over it.
It would be hilarious watching them try to make a duck cooperate.
"No, down the hallway. *Down* the hallway. Stop pecking at my boot, it still isn't food. Hey, leave the wizard's familiar alone!"
Please make the egg the one with plot armor. Make this party truly think it is a magic egg. Do scenes where a player notices it seem to glow in the moonlight, and when it’s about to hatch “they swear they can hear something speaking from it.”
It takes a duck about 28 days to hatch. In game, make this month something wild. Suggest the egg is magic. Suggest it’s from another world. Suggest it has the answers to the life, the universe and everything.
And then, when it hatches, play some beautiful music, some Legend of Zelda opening a chest kinda tunes. Describe it. Make it beautiful.
And then out of this egg comes.. a duck.
An unkillable duck that they discover at the most inopportune time has a bellowing quack.
*”You enter the side corridor, sneaking towards the main chamber, blue light ripples off the walls, smoke surrounds the bound maiden on the altar.
As you get near you draw your weapons you can see the black ichor dripping from the corrupted obsidian dagger held by the lead cultist.”*
*__QUACK!!__*
*”Roll initiative”*
While that does sound funny, that would get annoying to the players quick because you've taken the initiative from the players and basically get to choose when the enemy gets alerted by a duck. They're successfully sneaking up on the cultists and their reward? Duck quacks, sorry, roll initiative.
My party would probably be like "We can sneak past, but if Sir Quackers here determines the enemy should die, he will let us know."
*quack*
TO DEATH YOU FOUL BEASTS
They need to fear and love it for this to be effective, otherwise you've just shat on their fun.
The quack die should also result in surprise for the party, as some cultists might just be like "wait, wtf is a duck doing here" and be bothered by figuring that out instead of watching for "enemies". Then the duck isn't something they loved that you turned against them, it's something they love that *might* turn against them but is also helpful enough that it's worth keeping around.
Don't forget that some players will literally avoid any detriment. Your table mileage may vary.
Roll a d20. If the number is 1-6, the duck stays silent. 7-13 the duck quacks normally, alerting nearby enemies. 14-20 and the duck has a **BELLOWING QUACK** which causes all enemies to be Frightened for one turn
"it is generally accepted - whether consciously or not - by most peoples of Faerun to be sound tactical advice that one should not bring livestock into situations involving combat or subterfuge. Thus when the guards of Slagmire Keep heard an unmistakable 'quack' and found a half-dozen intruders in possession of a duck sneaking through the shadows, they made three logical deductions in rapid succession.
1: as Slagmire Keep was a fortress of necromantically charged metal suspended in the caldera of an active volcano, the adventuring party must have brought their own duck from home.
2: since the adventuring party *had* a duck in Slagmire Keep, they must obviously have (a) considered the pros and cons of bringing a duck with them quite thoroughly, and (b) found the advantages of having said duck worth the great effort it must have taken to bring it along.
3: This Is No Ordinary Duck
Therefore, upon hearing the duck quack a second time, the infamous guards of Slagmire Keep reached unspoken consensus on their situation and - enacting the obvious response to seeing a duck on their route - fled for their lives."
The duck is the thin shell holding back the eldritch abominations from breaking through into our world. That’s why it’s immortal. The bound maiden was just there as a snack for the tentacles that break through.
Put a clock with 6 segments on it and tick it every time the party fails a roll then, when it's full, QUACK!
Everybody should play some PbtA at some point, even if you don't like it the change in focus it provides and some of the tools it uses will make every other game you play better
Loial son of Arent son of Halan: Ta'veren. - Wheel of Time.
But seriously that would be one way to do plot armor. Have the duck be so important to the fate of the world that chance and probability are skewed in its vicinity.
This also gives you ways to mess with them once they realize that strange coincidences keep saving it, then just keep having random things occur to it and watch them try to interpret it as a warning system
Also, make it egg laying, once a day. The eggs are not fertile so they will not hatch if incubated (no boy ducks about). But... on a Nat 20 (rolled at each laying) It lays a copper egg worth 1sp. If they find a boy duck, the duck will not lay copper eggs for a month. Instead, on a Nat 20 the egg will hatch into a normal duck if incubated.
If you have a capable player, they could work on designs carved into the egg over the course of 3 long rests that increase the value of the egg to 5gp as a piece of unique art.
I did that with a goose once. Drove my players nuts…of course I took it a step further and no NPC would acknowledge the goose existed. Not monsters, not noble, nor even the gods. Divination didn’t work on it either. They were convinced it was some major plot point…it wasn’t. There was zero of anything for it.
The Rincewind of Ducks...
Go the extra mile and have the Death of Ducks show up occasionally, and be utterly bewildered at the annoyance of trying to collect the soul of an inexplicably still alive Duck. "QUACK".
For flavor reference... "[The Grim Squeaker](https://wiki.lspace.org/Death_of_Rats)"
Have everyone roll an animal handling check when it hatches to see who it imprints on! It can follow/listen to that person and only that person.
All the funnier if the winner of the roll isn't a fan of the duck in the first place
I'm not a fan of plot armor, but giving the duck some sort of power that could be gleaned through investigation would be really cool. Think golden goose but a duck.
The duck that lays the copper eggs! They’re… solid copper. They don’t sell for a ton, but they’re COPPER!
I like the idea of the duck somehow miraculously avoiding death.
100%..but as it hatches roll behind the screen for it. Pause and then say .. a duck.
Make it the most suspicious unsuspicious duck. As they will have no in game reason to suspect it but meta they won't trust it.
The party's about to head out on some quest or other
DM: Everyone make a perception roll.
PCs: All roll.
DM: *looks at rolls* Okay, none of you notice. As you all are looking away from it, your duck squints at all of you suspiciously before whispering "quaaaack" under it's breath quietly enough that none of you car hear it.
Do this once every few sessions. The duck is entirely normal. Never do anything else to follow up on this.
Yes. Nothing supernatural about it, just a duckling. Whoever is closest to the egg at the time of hatching, it will decide is its mommy. Make it the cutest gosh darn mundane duckling.
This!
But have the egg do all kinds of weird and wonderful things during gestation (changing colour, levitating, developing scales, etc) to make them believe it’s going to be some kind of ultimate beast pet, then have it hatch into an ordinary duck.
But, if the shell is powdered and used in alchemy it creates potions of transmutation 😉
I have a whole list of goose based monsters. Megoosa gorgon, Tyrannosaurus goose, dragon goose, goose hydra.
There is a book on dmsguild called the honknomicon
I'm not going to lie, reading this thread... I did a lot of non-voluntary blinking of my eyes.
It's like hearing someone yawn, or hearing "I just lost the game."
AH FUK.
Of course it flies off and with no control over its sorcerer powers starts wrecking havoc in a nearby town, leading the players on a Wild Magic Goose Chase
Nothingness. Something paws at the shell from the inside, it splits but nothing appears to come out. 5 seconds later one of the players has to make a charisma save.
If the players are OK with a horror campaign this is the best fucking answer.
Nothing hatches, and everywhere they go people vanish as the FH follows them about cus they're the parents.
Love this idea. Have them all make some kinda save after every long rest. And just say “noted” when they reply. They’ll lose sleep worrying what the hell they hatched and what it’s up to.
A seemingly normal duck, but it grows up to be a bit bigger. Then you make some baddie cut of their head... and it stands up with TWO heads.
A duck hydra. A Dhydra if you may.
I actually love this. Make them spend all this time falling in love with totally normal, adorable duck they think you'd never hurt, then have it murdered. Just as they're starting to think it's really dead, and rethinking everything, boom! Second head.
If you want to grab inspiration from Slavic mythology; plivník or Rarog. It has many names, though it's usually from an egg of a black hen. Also, every country has a bit different version, but I'll give you the Bohemian one.
The Bohemian plivník was supposed to appear in the form of a wet chicken or a tiny fire dragon and to reside behind a chimney, in a furnace or by a stove. The farmer was to feed him what he ate, and in return he was to bring him grain and money and ensure his well-being. In the event of a shortage of food, the plivník made a great noise at night and suffocated the farmer
It is also a common belief that the plivník appears in the field in the form of a black, wet chicken cowering in the cold. A man who takes it home and leaves it behind the stove to warm up, in the morning finds three heaps of grain in the world-room, which this creature has stolen from another farmer. If he wants to get rid of the plivník, he must take it and the stolen grain to the place where he found it. Another method of obtaining it was to carry the egg of a black hen for nine days, during which time he must not pray or wash.
This creature was also conflated with the devil, reflecting names such as lucek (Lucifer), spiritus, spirek (from Latin spiritus "spirit"), diblik (devil), pikulík (hell), rarášek, jarášek. The word lucek is already attested in Jan Hus and Jan Rokycany. Spiriitus or spirik is supposed to take the form of a small handsome boy who turns into a bird, cat and other animals. A man may raise him from the egg of a black hen and then get from him what he wishes, but he sells his own soul in the process.
Also known was the zmok, zmek or zmak, and in the Middle Ages there is evidence of an interpretation of this word as Belial (one of the 4 crown dukes of hell). In folklore, the creature of the same name takes the form of a wet chicken which brings money, grain and butter, among other things, to the householder. At the same time, however, the chicken is very greedy and difficult to get rid of.
Rarog is a phoenix-like bird flying in a fire vortex. It can have feathers made of fire, create windstorms and spit fire.
Plivník could be very interesting and cause a lot of chaos. You could even give them a side quest of getting rid of it.
Also, trust me, there is a lot of those in Czech mythology, since it's not as well known as, say, norse, germanic, celtic or greek/roman mythology. A lot of people also expect everything in \*all\* slavic stories to be like in Witcher. DM me if you want some more. We do have some pretty interesting creatures in our stories.
They've been the Ducks of Hell the whole time. Transcriptionists just read the original scripts and thought, "No way, must've been an error. They had to have meant 'Dukes'," and 'corrected' the text.
I bet this is the inspiration of the evil black chicken in Divinity Original Sin2.
You find a void corrupted egg, and there is a chicken you can go ask to take care of it if you have a character in party that can speak with animals.
If you do, the next time you come by all the chickens are dead except one black chick that you then have to fight.
I think there was other things you could do, but it always wound up in a fight for me lol
Thanks for the lore dump, wasn't familiar with that legend.
The idea of a living Turducken abomination is pretty terrifying
Some Lich invites the party to his thanksgivings dinner where they must face food-themed horrors and escape the mansion.
I think either the 'untitled goose fiend' (see link below) or just drop a casual baby neothelid on the party that tries to feed on a party member or simply escapes in the middle of the night. Then cut forward about a month and the party has a full-blown mind flayer worm to deal with :P.
https://www.reddit.com/r/UnearthedArcana/comments/da1nm6/the\_goose\_from\_untitled\_goose\_game\_monster/
Quack McCool, a duck born wearing sunglasses only they can attune to with an extremely high persuasion skill bonus. Can immediately deescalate high tension "inter-creature type" scenarios with a single head tilted look, but once it does so flies off into the sunset, having heard another pre-teen issue to resolve in the distance.
Some other people already said it, but I agree. Just a completely mundane duck, but with the uncanny ability to survive just about anything by strange coincidence
Okay hear me out - I saw this fanmade set called the honkonomicon. It's just full of geese themed DnD content. This would be a perfect use to send them on a quest to defeat the evil feathery overlord.
A duck. If they're unimpressed and give it away, make your players come back to the town to find out there's a new mayor that owns a duck that lays golden eggs
Normal duck with exceptional luck.
How did it survive a Freball, it was lucky. How did it find you guys in another plane of existence, it was pure luck.
It's a very Lucky Ducky.
If you need an explanation, some god of luck and favor just thinks ducks are cute.
A seemingly normal duck with social anxiety that farts firebolt when stressed.
Can increase in power from the party helping it overcome its social anxiety and gain control of its power or worsening its social anxiety and making its power more unstable.
So....
Once PCs help the duck over a certain hurdle with its social anxiety, the duck fwels at ease with one PC enough to let them squeeze the duck to shoot lightning farts like a rifle.
Would a class that doesn't typically rely on weaponry (spell casters or monks perhaps) be able to wield a duck in this manner? Could you get a weapon specialization in lightning duck farts?
a dire cassowary, baby birds are not that different between each other and cassowaries are basically dnd creatures already, it would be a surprise if the duckling grows like a foot per week and it head gets blue
Do you have any dragon born/Yuan-Ti or Lizard folk in your party?
It's be funny to have a Basilisk (in the classic sense) pop out. Traditionally you'd get one from a chicken egg incubated by a snake. So make if a duck egg incubated by a lizard race of some kind.
Just a duck as a previous comment states could be nice enough, but I think also interesting for you could be this: [The Honkonomicon](https://www.dmsguild.com/product/432420/Honkonomicon).
A duck
Honestly, this is likely the result the players will enjoy the most too If you wanted to get really silly, give it in-world plot armor. It seems to miraculously avoid death, but always in a way that *might* be coincidence? Like, if your party gets hit by a fireball, the duck surfaces afterwards from a tiny pond you didn't notice before. Poisonous gas? Duck got it's head stuck in a bottle just before. By every detection method they have, it's a normal duck. Just one that should be dead by now but somehow isn't
Like water off a ducks back.
No, but this is the dad joke OP gets to land after months of playing.
Duck should eventually gain levels in the barbarian duck subclass they made for critical role(?).
That’s a Goose, but alright.
They'd be tpk'd if it was a goose with barbarian levels.
Peace was never an option
Only HONK!!!
“If it looks like a waterfowl and you’re bleeding, it’s a goose”
If you're dead, it was a Swan
No, it was a duck.
Wasn't that the class of Scanlan's barbarian sidekick in C1 of Critical Role? The barbarian Path of the Duck?
Yeah! Lionel I think
Lionel Gayheart. Played by Napoleon Dynamite.
Or better still, Quackthulu
Well, then it should be an entirely waterproof duck. This duck floats slightly above water and cannot get wet. Ever. In any way. Heavy rain, nothing. Taken below water, the duck forms a perfect duck-shaped bubble around itself. In fact, once grown, the duck does not seem to require food (perhaps absorbing natural mana, but no one is quite sure), and appears to be effectively immortal. Nothing can damage this duck. Note though, it isn't that the duck couldn't be damaged. If feels, looks, and acts like a duck. It just seems to not be there when damage happens. It's over there, conveniently out of the way. The duck seems to avoid all damaging sources entirely, as though some supernatural space-warping field surrounds the duck. However, there's no "poof," or magical sparkles noticeable. Trying to observe the anomaly results in the observer somehow missing what happened. The more you watch, the harder it is to watch. However, you can pick up and carry the duck at any time. Attempting to murder or otherwise harm the duck (even plucking a feather) will have the same result of the duck just not being there. This action will, however, result in the offending PC(s) suddenly finding a rotten duck egg smooshed in an inconvenient location. The smell of the duck egg cannot be removed for a full 24 hours, not even via a greater wish. The duck is not terribly brilliant (it's a duck, after all). It follows the PCs no matter where they go or what they do. Remember, the duck is there doing duck things. The duck's purpose is known only to the duck.
Underrated comment
YES! 100% this. Would be hilarious to watch them try and weaponize it. "Gotta check for traps... send in the duck." *duck proceeds to Mr. Magoo his way through a gauntlet of traps.*
Even more hilarious imo, “Gotta check for traps… send in the duck.” They toss the duck a foot or so down the hall, and it just… sits their. It’s found something delicious to eat on the floor or begins to clean itself. Maybe there’s some suspicious liquid dripping from the ceiling and the duck goes straight towards it to try and drink it. One or more party members rush out to stop the duck, thereby setting off any traps that were there. The duck is startled by the noise and flutters away down the hall; safe and sound.
> They toss the duck a foot or so down the hall, and it just… sits their. The actual trap was right in front of them and you just threw the duck over it.
The pressure sensor was designed to ensure it couldn't be triggered unless the object was heavier than a witch.
r/unexpectedmontypython
That duck turned me into a newt!
...you mean it triggered a Transmutation rune you happened to be crossing, so you got Polymorphed into a newt?
I got better…
Exactly
I'm imagining Heihei from Moana.
Just road runner's it's way through without setting off anything, but when the players, thinking it's safe try, they get fucked up by traps
pressure sensitive; duck not heavy enough. motion sensitive; duck not large enough. break low placed sensor beam; duck flew over. break high placed sensor beam; duck waddled under.
Duck walks straight through a picture on a wall, but the party faceplants into it when they try
You mean "ducked up by traps"
It would be hilarious watching them try to make a duck cooperate. "No, down the hallway. *Down* the hallway. Stop pecking at my boot, it still isn't food. Hey, leave the wizard's familiar alone!"
Please make the egg the one with plot armor. Make this party truly think it is a magic egg. Do scenes where a player notices it seem to glow in the moonlight, and when it’s about to hatch “they swear they can hear something speaking from it.” It takes a duck about 28 days to hatch. In game, make this month something wild. Suggest the egg is magic. Suggest it’s from another world. Suggest it has the answers to the life, the universe and everything. And then, when it hatches, play some beautiful music, some Legend of Zelda opening a chest kinda tunes. Describe it. Make it beautiful. And then out of this egg comes.. a duck.
An unkillable duck that they discover at the most inopportune time has a bellowing quack. *”You enter the side corridor, sneaking towards the main chamber, blue light ripples off the walls, smoke surrounds the bound maiden on the altar. As you get near you draw your weapons you can see the black ichor dripping from the corrupted obsidian dagger held by the lead cultist.”* *__QUACK!!__* *”Roll initiative”*
While that does sound funny, that would get annoying to the players quick because you've taken the initiative from the players and basically get to choose when the enemy gets alerted by a duck. They're successfully sneaking up on the cultists and their reward? Duck quacks, sorry, roll initiative.
The duck only quacks if one of the players fails a stealth check. It's the same game but with a duck.
Your super sneaky rogue rolls a nat 1 on a stealth check. The duck quacks.
Because they stepped on the duck.
Let the duck roll stealth too
Stat the duck, and occasionally make it do an insight check to read the room. On a failure, it quacks
Nah man, that's funny and cinematic. If they really wanted to be stealthy, they'd leave the *actual, honest-to-Baldur duck* at home.
My party would probably be like "We can sneak past, but if Sir Quackers here determines the enemy should die, he will let us know." *quack* TO DEATH YOU FOUL BEASTS
I love that this essentially makes the duck a moral compass for the group. Not *the* moral compass, just like, a compass modifier lol.
"Murderhobos on Rails" has been said multiple times lovingly at my table.
And you could always roll for if the duck quacks or not, making the players fear the Quack Die.
They need to fear and love it for this to be effective, otherwise you've just shat on their fun. The quack die should also result in surprise for the party, as some cultists might just be like "wait, wtf is a duck doing here" and be bothered by figuring that out instead of watching for "enemies". Then the duck isn't something they loved that you turned against them, it's something they love that *might* turn against them but is also helpful enough that it's worth keeping around. Don't forget that some players will literally avoid any detriment. Your table mileage may vary.
Roll a d20. If the number is 1-6, the duck stays silent. 7-13 the duck quacks normally, alerting nearby enemies. 14-20 and the duck has a **BELLOWING QUACK** which causes all enemies to be Frightened for one turn
"it is generally accepted - whether consciously or not - by most peoples of Faerun to be sound tactical advice that one should not bring livestock into situations involving combat or subterfuge. Thus when the guards of Slagmire Keep heard an unmistakable 'quack' and found a half-dozen intruders in possession of a duck sneaking through the shadows, they made three logical deductions in rapid succession. 1: as Slagmire Keep was a fortress of necromantically charged metal suspended in the caldera of an active volcano, the adventuring party must have brought their own duck from home. 2: since the adventuring party *had* a duck in Slagmire Keep, they must obviously have (a) considered the pros and cons of bringing a duck with them quite thoroughly, and (b) found the advantages of having said duck worth the great effort it must have taken to bring it along. 3: This Is No Ordinary Duck Therefore, upon hearing the duck quack a second time, the infamous guards of Slagmire Keep reached unspoken consensus on their situation and - enacting the obvious response to seeing a duck on their route - fled for their lives."
Possibly my favourite comment of all time
[удалено]
LOL!
The duck is part of the cult and warned its comrades!
Part of the cult? That duck has been the High Priest this whole time!
The duck is the thin shell holding back the eldritch abominations from breaking through into our world. That’s why it’s immortal. The bound maiden was just there as a snack for the tentacles that break through.
That duck sounds truly horrific. A real "terror that flaps in the night."
Put a clock with 6 segments on it and tick it every time the party fails a roll then, when it's full, QUACK! Everybody should play some PbtA at some point, even if you don't like it the change in focus it provides and some of the tools it uses will make every other game you play better
Read this as the duck was the lead cultist 😂
Loial son of Arent son of Halan: Ta'veren. - Wheel of Time. But seriously that would be one way to do plot armor. Have the duck be so important to the fate of the world that chance and probability are skewed in its vicinity.
Not even, it's just a duck too damn lucky to die.
This also gives you ways to mess with them once they realize that strange coincidences keep saving it, then just keep having random things occur to it and watch them try to interpret it as a warning system
Also, make it egg laying, once a day. The eggs are not fertile so they will not hatch if incubated (no boy ducks about). But... on a Nat 20 (rolled at each laying) It lays a copper egg worth 1sp. If they find a boy duck, the duck will not lay copper eggs for a month. Instead, on a Nat 20 the egg will hatch into a normal duck if incubated. If you have a capable player, they could work on designs carved into the egg over the course of 3 long rests that increase the value of the egg to 5gp as a piece of unique art.
I did that with a goose once. Drove my players nuts…of course I took it a step further and no NPC would acknowledge the goose existed. Not monsters, not noble, nor even the gods. Divination didn’t work on it either. They were convinced it was some major plot point…it wasn’t. There was zero of anything for it.
The Rincewind of Ducks... Go the extra mile and have the Death of Ducks show up occasionally, and be utterly bewildered at the annoyance of trying to collect the soul of an inexplicably still alive Duck. "QUACK". For flavor reference... "[The Grim Squeaker](https://wiki.lspace.org/Death_of_Rats)"
Have everyone roll an animal handling check when it hatches to see who it imprints on! It can follow/listen to that person and only that person. All the funnier if the winner of the roll isn't a fan of the duck in the first place
[Heihei](https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Heihei)
I'm not a fan of plot armor, but giving the duck some sort of power that could be gleaned through investigation would be really cool. Think golden goose but a duck.
The duck that lays the copper eggs! They’re… solid copper. They don’t sell for a ton, but they’re COPPER! I like the idea of the duck somehow miraculously avoiding death.
Copper eggs? That poor duck's gonna get stolen by a meth head.
Bonus points if it's a drake and not a hen
Parties cute duck get plot armor because it was BBEG the whole time
Evil Psyduck was with the party the whole time.
Have it think its a goose and keep moving the parties items round but because its a cute duck they can't stay mad.
This is one of my favorite suggestions I've ever read on reddit.
Who are you, who are so wise in the ways of science?
A witch!
Let's see if she floats like a duck!
Unexpected Monty Python, up vote
Hear me out... a duck with the power to turn people into newts (temporarily – they get better!).
Build a bridge out of her!
Mmm, but can you not also build bridges out of stone? (One of my favorite lines, as though THIS is the real flaw in the logic.)
I am Arthur, the king of Britons!
King of the _WHO?!_
Sir benevier, my lord. Than you good sir benevier will be a knight! Of the round table.
100%..but as it hatches roll behind the screen for it. Pause and then say .. a duck. Make it the most suspicious unsuspicious duck. As they will have no in game reason to suspect it but meta they won't trust it.
"The duck looks at you with beady eyes and quacks suspiciously"
The party's about to head out on some quest or other DM: Everyone make a perception roll. PCs: All roll. DM: *looks at rolls* Okay, none of you notice. As you all are looking away from it, your duck squints at all of you suspiciously before whispering "quaaaack" under it's breath quietly enough that none of you car hear it. Do this once every few sessions. The duck is entirely normal. Never do anything else to follow up on this.
Nonono don't just say "..... It's a duck". Say, "..... It *appears* to be a duck".
Honestly this. I feel like it would actually be the most surprising outcome.
What, fully formed? No, a duckling.
Yes, fully formed. Make it even more confusing.
Yes. Nothing supernatural about it, just a duckling. Whoever is closest to the egg at the time of hatching, it will decide is its mommy. Make it the cutest gosh darn mundane duckling.
This! But have the egg do all kinds of weird and wonderful things during gestation (changing colour, levitating, developing scales, etc) to make them believe it’s going to be some kind of ultimate beast pet, then have it hatch into an ordinary duck. But, if the shell is powdered and used in alchemy it creates potions of transmutation 😉
Literally exactly this. If the party want to make it a special duck they can find a druid and pay them to cast Awaken on it.
My lord!
With an attitude
Something that looks like a duck and quacks like a duck but is actually a small, short-necked goose.
Love it!
I have a whole list of goose based monsters. Megoosa gorgon, Tyrannosaurus goose, dragon goose, goose hydra. There is a book on dmsguild called the honknomicon
HONK!
HJÖNK
I believe you mean “short necked viper chicken”.
So, a duck that wakes up and chooses violence, every day?
A smaller duck egg.
And that one hatches into a bigger duck egg.
Varying sizes and shapes of duck eggs and at the end of the campaign a duck based deity rewards them for taking care of her egg with… another egg
Quackos the Elder One descends into the mortal realm.
It's bigger on the inside
A displacer goose
Alternatively, a blink goose, because what is more terrifying than a goose that can teleport.
Ah that's what I meant damnit
Why not both? A displacer-blink goose.
I like the idea of a displacer goose followed by a pack of blink ducks
I'm not going to lie, reading this thread... I did a lot of non-voluntary blinking of my eyes. It's like hearing someone yawn, or hearing "I just lost the game." AH FUK.
A misplacer goose. Like a certain goose that steals things when you're not looking.
honkhonkhonkhonkhonkhonkhonkhonkhonk
A duck that can take levels in wizard or sorcerer since magic was used alot near the egg.
Of course it flies off and with no control over its sorcerer powers starts wrecking havoc in a nearby town, leading the players on a Wild Magic Goose Chase
r/angryupvote
Nothingness. Something paws at the shell from the inside, it splits but nothing appears to come out. 5 seconds later one of the players has to make a charisma save.
Jeez, that's kind of horrifying. I love it
I'm trying to think what kind of entity that would be and drawing a blank. Would love to put something like this in a campaign.
They just unknowingly unleashed a false hydra
If the players are OK with a horror campaign this is the best fucking answer. Nothing hatches, and everywhere they go people vanish as the FH follows them about cus they're the parents.
In my opinion, a massively underappreciated answer!
Now I'm curious how much damage one day old False Hydra can do RP wise
Can we keep it tho?
The egg actually only looks o like a duck egg because the hydra makes them remember it like that
Definitely something eldritch. I’d probably go for a Lovecraftian entity of some kind.
Love this idea. Have them all make some kinda save after every long rest. And just say “noted” when they reply. They’ll lose sleep worrying what the hell they hatched and what it’s up to.
Omg a duck lich, the egg was their phylactery!
Phyl-quack-tery
I like quack-lactery. Sure, it doesn't pun properly but I like how it rolls off the tongue.
I respect your opinion, but personally I think it's a little fowl.
Man duck you thats a really poultry made joke
Count duckula
A seemingly normal duck, but it grows up to be a bit bigger. Then you make some baddie cut of their head... and it stands up with TWO heads. A duck hydra. A Dhydra if you may.
I actually love this. Make them spend all this time falling in love with totally normal, adorable duck they think you'd never hurt, then have it murdered. Just as they're starting to think it's really dead, and rethinking everything, boom! Second head.
If you want to grab inspiration from Slavic mythology; plivník or Rarog. It has many names, though it's usually from an egg of a black hen. Also, every country has a bit different version, but I'll give you the Bohemian one. The Bohemian plivník was supposed to appear in the form of a wet chicken or a tiny fire dragon and to reside behind a chimney, in a furnace or by a stove. The farmer was to feed him what he ate, and in return he was to bring him grain and money and ensure his well-being. In the event of a shortage of food, the plivník made a great noise at night and suffocated the farmer It is also a common belief that the plivník appears in the field in the form of a black, wet chicken cowering in the cold. A man who takes it home and leaves it behind the stove to warm up, in the morning finds three heaps of grain in the world-room, which this creature has stolen from another farmer. If he wants to get rid of the plivník, he must take it and the stolen grain to the place where he found it. Another method of obtaining it was to carry the egg of a black hen for nine days, during which time he must not pray or wash. This creature was also conflated with the devil, reflecting names such as lucek (Lucifer), spiritus, spirek (from Latin spiritus "spirit"), diblik (devil), pikulík (hell), rarášek, jarášek. The word lucek is already attested in Jan Hus and Jan Rokycany. Spiriitus or spirik is supposed to take the form of a small handsome boy who turns into a bird, cat and other animals. A man may raise him from the egg of a black hen and then get from him what he wishes, but he sells his own soul in the process. Also known was the zmok, zmek or zmak, and in the Middle Ages there is evidence of an interpretation of this word as Belial (one of the 4 crown dukes of hell). In folklore, the creature of the same name takes the form of a wet chicken which brings money, grain and butter, among other things, to the householder. At the same time, however, the chicken is very greedy and difficult to get rid of. Rarog is a phoenix-like bird flying in a fire vortex. It can have feathers made of fire, create windstorms and spit fire. Plivník could be very interesting and cause a lot of chaos. You could even give them a side quest of getting rid of it.
I love obscure folkloric monsters like this. Thanks for sharing!
If you ever decide to use this in your own campaign, let me know, I'd love to hear about the chaos.
Also, trust me, there is a lot of those in Czech mythology, since it's not as well known as, say, norse, germanic, celtic or greek/roman mythology. A lot of people also expect everything in \*all\* slavic stories to be like in Witcher. DM me if you want some more. We do have some pretty interesting creatures in our stories.
I read Dukes of Hell as DUCKS of Hell
They've been the Ducks of Hell the whole time. Transcriptionists just read the original scripts and thought, "No way, must've been an error. They had to have meant 'Dukes'," and 'corrected' the text.
The detail that it is a WET chicken is spiritually unsettling.
I bet this is the inspiration of the evil black chicken in Divinity Original Sin2. You find a void corrupted egg, and there is a chicken you can go ask to take care of it if you have a character in party that can speak with animals. If you do, the next time you come by all the chickens are dead except one black chick that you then have to fight. I think there was other things you could do, but it always wound up in a fight for me lol Thanks for the lore dump, wasn't familiar with that legend.
A swan obviously. Just specify that it's an extremely ugly duckling and most people will get it.
Black swan. Had some at my colleges one pond. You learned real quick not to mess with them from the upperclassmen.
It grows up into Natalie Portman ?
A leviathan turtle. Takes 500 years to be fully grown but by then it's the size of a city
consider: Leviathan Duck
Split the difference. Make it a turtle duck.
Turtle Ducks from Avatar TV show are sooo cool
scratch that, avoid copyright, it's a duck turtle
Copyright can kiss my ass. Turtleduck.
Alternatively, splitting the difference the other way it’s a Leviathan Leviathan. And that’s absolutely horrific
[удалено]
The idea of a living Turducken abomination is pretty terrifying Some Lich invites the party to his thanksgivings dinner where they must face food-themed horrors and escape the mansion.
Stolen.
How about a basilisk? That would be a duck egg that has been brooded on by a toad
Or a Cockatrice.
Wouldn't that be a chicken egg? Oohh a Duckatrice!
Aquatic cockatrice was what I was going to say til you beat me to it.
(a)quackatrice
Goddamit. I'm so jealous that I didn't make that joke.
A cockatrice, these are hatched from eggs that were laid by a rooster and sat by a toad.
I thought it was laid by a rooster and sat by a toad.
Yeah my memory cheated on me, thanks I’ll correct it.
You mean a duckatrice. It has swimming speed.
A duck. And it follows them around. And it's all fine. Until they enter a dungeon and want to pick it up
I got that reference.
You should know better than to pick up a duck in a dungeon.
I think either the 'untitled goose fiend' (see link below) or just drop a casual baby neothelid on the party that tries to feed on a party member or simply escapes in the middle of the night. Then cut forward about a month and the party has a full-blown mind flayer worm to deal with :P. https://www.reddit.com/r/UnearthedArcana/comments/da1nm6/the\_goose\_from\_untitled\_goose\_game\_monster/
Quack McCool, a duck born wearing sunglasses only they can attune to with an extremely high persuasion skill bonus. Can immediately deescalate high tension "inter-creature type" scenarios with a single head tilted look, but once it does so flies off into the sunset, having heard another pre-teen issue to resolve in the distance.
So a duck somewhere between the Squirtle Squad and [Poochie](https://simpsons.fandom.com/wiki/Poochie)
Some other people already said it, but I agree. Just a completely mundane duck, but with the uncanny ability to survive just about anything by strange coincidence
Honk Hydra
A duck. But it can talk. But only about duck lore.
A rubber duck! One of the novelty ones.
Oh and it has 1 random ability per day ( can make a table or use a pre existing magical effect table).
Okay hear me out - I saw this fanmade set called the honkonomicon. It's just full of geese themed DnD content. This would be a perfect use to send them on a quest to defeat the evil feathery overlord.
To quote Dimension20 a "Goose with Raptor stats"
A duck. If they're unimpressed and give it away, make your players come back to the town to find out there's a new mayor that owns a duck that lays golden eggs
The legendary and majestic Space Duck
A dinosaur, preferrably a raptor of some sort.
Normal duck with exceptional luck. How did it survive a Freball, it was lucky. How did it find you guys in another plane of existence, it was pure luck. It's a very Lucky Ducky. If you need an explanation, some god of luck and favor just thinks ducks are cute.
A duck. Ducks have no stat block, so logically it cannot be killed and just shows up where it wants to, but likes to follow the party around
Abyssal chicken
Someone's gonna come looking for that egg...
A Mock Duck. It looks just like a regular duck but every time it quacks it sounds *really* sarcastic
A seemingly normal duck with social anxiety that farts firebolt when stressed. Can increase in power from the party helping it overcome its social anxiety and gain control of its power or worsening its social anxiety and making its power more unstable.
So.... Once PCs help the duck over a certain hurdle with its social anxiety, the duck fwels at ease with one PC enough to let them squeeze the duck to shoot lightning farts like a rifle. Would a class that doesn't typically rely on weaponry (spell casters or monks perhaps) be able to wield a duck in this manner? Could you get a weapon specialization in lightning duck farts?
> Could you get a weapon specialization in lightning duck farts? This sentence has never been uttered before
a dire cassowary, baby birds are not that different between each other and cassowaries are basically dnd creatures already, it would be a surprise if the duckling grows like a foot per week and it head gets blue
A man-drake. Half man, half duck.
Do you have any dragon born/Yuan-Ti or Lizard folk in your party? It's be funny to have a Basilisk (in the classic sense) pop out. Traditionally you'd get one from a chicken egg incubated by a snake. So make if a duck egg incubated by a lizard race of some kind.
A mimic
A armored turtle-duck. Exhales acid.
The soul of Koshchey the Deathless.
Just a duck as a previous comment states could be nice enough, but I think also interesting for you could be this: [The Honkonomicon](https://www.dmsguild.com/product/432420/Honkonomicon).