Mother of Disaster

Question: Whatever happened to Metis? Is she still in Zeus’ stomach? How would you go about causing Zeus and Metis to copulate and conceive without Zeus being any the wiser as to the identity of his partner (most likely with the intervention of other pantheons and heavy use of Darkness, Illusion and/or Magic)? What do you think would happen in such a situation (assuming that Zeus did not find out about the child’s existence until it was safely out of his reach)?

Well, Metis got eaten, that is what happened to her. But past that point, there are a couple of interesting options.

The easiest is probably to assume that she escaped when the rest of the Titans did; sure, she was in Zeus' stomach and not Tartarus, but with all the shenanigans going on, it's not far-fetched to think that she might have escaped in the confusion or with the help of other Avatars (or gods!) with an interest in seeing Zeus deposed. We already know from the case of Cronus and his devoured children that in Greek myth being eaten doesn't necessarily mean being digested or killed, so events might have transpired to make Zeus vomit her back up. He might be desperately trying to marshal the Dodekatheon to find her before it's too late, or he might be hiding the fact that he's lost her while he tries to manage it on his own, loath to let the rest of the pantheon know that his grip might be slipping. Metis on the loose is a very dangerous prospect for Zeus; he's not known for being overly perceptive or brainy, and Metis is the very embodiment of craftiness. I don't think you need all that much extra help from other gods for her to seduce him again; Metis' Manipulation score can probably already overcome Zeus' Perception without her breaking a sweat, and her ability to plan amazing plans is way out of his league.

However, we're also pretty fond of the idea that Metis is still in Zeus' stomach, chilling out. She's a zillion times smarter than he is, after all, so it makes sense to us that she might have allowed herself to be eaten as part of some larger plan; maybe she wanted to prove a point, maybe she's trying to avoid ruining Zeus, or maybe she's just playing a much more complex, long-range game. She could have all kinds of crazy goals that being inside Zeus helps her achieve - already she didn't have to go to Tartarus with the other Titans, right?

Furthermore, I doubt she needs to actually have sex with Zeus again to create this foretold son; she's actually in him, and if she has basic Health boons or other powers to help her could easily get pregnant without having to come back out and do things the old-fashioned way (she already gave birth to a baby while inside him once, after all!). Even more interesting, she might be able to meddle with Zeus' reproduction from within - since Metis is now contained within Zeus and therefore kind of part of Zeus, any children he sires while she's in there could also be considered her children if she does some behind-the-scenes wizardry, making any son Zeus has now potentially the fulfiller of the Prophecy.

We always like to leave the door open for any Scion of Zeus to possibly be the foretold harbinger of doom. They don't have to be - especially PCs, who can make their own choices about what their relationship with Zeus is like - but it's always a neat possibility to have out there. Zeus would probably get warnings that things were about to happen - he is, after all, a powerful oracular god - but, just as in the past, he isn't really well-equipped to find out about or handle situations that aren't specifically brought to his attention, so it probably wouldn't be difficult at all for the foretold son of Zeus to survive long enough to be a threat. It'd be very interesting for Zeus to shepherd his own Scion along without realizing that he was helping the very person destined to defeat him, or for the boy to grow up under the wing of Athena, the only other living child of Metis and Zeus.