Alesmiter: Character Creation Challenge: Day 20

Wednesday, January 20, 2021

Character Creation Challenge: Day 20 - Carcosa

Legendary, reviled Carcosa. I'd come across references to the fabled, unofficial 'Supplement V' to D&D, eventually I picked up the version that was published by Lamentations of the Flame Princess. Because it starts talking about dice, being restricted to Sorcerer and Fighter classes and it's own combat system, I always have looked at it as a complete gaming system, despite having read the line that it was for use with any system. So I was a tad surprised when I didn't find the rules for generating characters. Amazing the power of first impressions.

All the of the descriptions of Carcosa's horrible, revolting contents are quite true. Human sacrifice, rape, infanticide are all in the ritual requirements, and the most powerful Sorcerers will be those who embrace them. Not a system I'm willing to run as a DM, but one that I embrace as a source of villains for other games. There's nothing like having an evil high priest chasing down the requirements of a revolting ritual to provide a hook for adventure. Whether the party is trying to thwart them or are their unwitting dupes, the detailed requirements provide a structure and goal for the bad guys.

Below is a Sorcerer from Carcosa, if I were making a villain to use in the City State, I would give them spells like a magic user, with the Carcvosan rituals being in addition.

I used LotFP for character generation.

Ghaffari Chaotic Sorcerer

CH 6 CN 16 DX 14 IQ 12 ST 13 WS 7

Image created with Hero Forge

HD 9+21 Attack +11 AC 20 melee/21 ranged

Medium Weapon (Sword) 1d8+1

Saves

Paralyzation 8 Poison 6 Breath Weapon 7

Magic Device 7 Magic 10

Plate armor and shield. And any mundane items needed.

Ghaffari is an Orange Man just arrived in the City State. And he is a most chaotic sorcerer who wishes to torment the Suckered Abomination until it will obey him, by casting the Dirge of the Outer Dark. This requires him to obtain, grow and weave cloth from the now extinct (on Carcosa) Black Flax plant. He's looking to hire a party to search for the seeds which he believes may still flourish in the Altanian jungles. He doesn't mention that the ritual also requires sacrifice of forty three sentient creatures.

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Sorcerers in Carcosa are just fighters who know rituals. All Carcosans have vivid, odd skin pigments, in this case Orange. Hit Dice are listed, rather tha Hit points, as in Carcosa you roll for what size of hit dice you will use for each combat as well as the number of hit points. So Cthulhu could show up one time with d4 for hit dice size, and the next time d12. In this case a Sorcerer has 9+3 hit dice at 10th level plus the 18 hit points from thei 16 Constitution.