Does a Sorcerer know where to go to perform rituals?

[Morandir]

I'm a few sessions into a Carcosa game now (and having a blast), and one of the PCs just learned the ritual "Sacrifice of the Pendent Fungus" (by eating a fellow Sorcerer's brain!). The ritual states that it can only be performed in a certain cave in Hex 1513.

My question is, how do other Refs handle this? Does the Sorcerer know, having learned the ritual, where exactly he needs to go? And if so, how precisely? I've ruled for the moment that the PC knows he needs to travel into the Poisonous Swamps, and once he's there he can find the cave through searching for various landmarks that point the way. But he doesn't necessarily know where those swamps are relative to his current location, and so I'll probably allow a roll to see if he's heard of them (and thus knows in what direction they lie), and if not he can ask around until he finds someone who can give him directions.

I'm happy enough with this, but I thought I'd throw the question out there and see what other people have done.

[geoffrey]

I typically assume that if a sorcerer has learned how to perform a given ritual, he has thereby learned the location required.

[Morandir]

Hmm. Do you mean that he knows *exactly* where to go, as if he had an internal GPS pointing the way or the location marked on a map? Or just that he knows a set of directions that locate it?

In the end the result is the same; the PCs have to travel from their current location to the Poisonous Swamps, encountering whatever the dice turn up along the way. The question was really more about how people present the knowledge of the location: as a set of directions, or some sort of magical internal compass that pinpoints the exact location.

I suppose it's actually about answering the question of whether or not the Sorcerer can get lost on the way there. Knowing that the cave is in the northeast reaches of the Poisonous Swamps isn't the same as knowing exactly how to get there from where he is now, and if he gets turned around in the Yathogthotep Forest knowing the ritual wouldn't, I think, allow him to magically reorient himself.

[geoffrey]

No GPS. He simply knows how to get there. This does not preclude him getting lost on the way. Imagine if a friend told you how to get to the new bookstore in town. You would basically know where to go, but you very well could make a wrong turn, get confused, get lost, go right by it without noticing it, etc. Same with the locations of rituals.

[Morandir]

That's pretty much what I imagined, but sometimes I tend to overthink things. Thanks for the input!

[Malcadon]

The incantations would likely note the names or some landmarks of where to go. Spells in this setting are so elaborate and specific about everything, it would not be all that surprising that they are wordy as hell, thus everything they need to know is buried in the text, if they are smart enough to figure it all out. When a Sorcerer sets out to find the location, he would have to look around for clues or ask around.

For example, the Three Wise Men where said to have had found the baby Jesus by using astrology, based on some prophesy. I'm not saying that a star would magically appear overhead to guide a Sorcerer to were they need to go. What I'm saying that if a spell gives some astrological clues to where on earth to find a specific location, they can would be able to find it, if they have the skill and knowledge to do so. Astrology could be one of many ways to find locations.

[Morandir]

Yeah, I basically told the player that he knew it was in the Poisonous Swamps, and once he got there he could search for Landmark A, which would lead to Sign B, which would point the way. I picture it a lot like the instructions that Captain Kidd left in his coded message in Edgar Allan Poe's "The Gold Bug."

The astronomy/astrology idea is nifty though; that's going into a future location!

[geoffrey]

Yeah, you guys are doing it the way I do.

[tkdco2]

insert quote here

I'd probably have the sorcerer know the general direction of the place and a rough idea of how far away it is. The sorcerer would be able to recognize the place once he reached it.

[Malcadon]

One of the nifty notes found in games Conan (the D20 game by Mongoose) and Barbarians of Lemuria are for those spell ingredients that are "so rare, it would take a lot of time and effort to if it, if not its own adventure!" Its like that old saying "It's not the destination that matters, but the journey to get there.", where trying to find someplace or something or someone that makes a great adventure hook into itself. Although, with how spells work in the setting, that seems to be standard operating procedure.