A Possible Solution To The Mystery Of The Thirteen Races?

[jcstephens]

Why did the Snakemen create so many different races, when the only visible difference is skin color? Well, what if the various races of Carcosa have had their circulatory and nervous systems genetically modified so that they form mystical diagrams within their bodies, a sort of sorcerous circuit, and each race has a different pattern? The tortures and killings are crude attempts to energize and tune the living circuits, and thus produce the effect desired. The reason Mummy Brains are able to perform rituals without sacrifices is because they have learned to visualize and activate the circuits on the Astral Plane (or whatever), no physical components required. Of course, this opens the door for Laundryverse style Computational Demonology, but the only ones on Carcosa with computers are the Space Aliens. And THEY'D never do anything like that, would they?

[ritt]

Whoa!

[otiv]

So... What happens if you construct a flesh-golem out of Carcosan body-parts? Or even just tissue grafts?

[tkdco2]

It would explain why the different races cannot interbreed: Their hardwiring is incompatible.

As for the flesh golem, if it's made from corpses, the patterns may already be useless, like a burnt=out lightbulb. But what if the golem was made from living test subjects who survived the ordeal? The answer may be something the Snake-men took to their graves.

[otiv]

Here's an idea...

Sutures of Biological Melding
[Science Ritual]
An Ulfire mad scientist conducts horrific biological experiments in a castle in hex 2307. His research notes describe a procedure that would allow for the limbs, organs, or other body parts of one still-living creature (henceforth referred to as the "donor") to be grafted onto another still-living creature (henceforth referred to as the "patient").
This ritual is quick (by necessity!) taking less than an hour to complete.
The patient loses one hit die, and gains a new body part. However, the patient must make a Survival roll based on their Constitution score to determine if hey survive the ghastly ritual.

Constitution/Survival
18/            150%
17/            140%
16/            130%
15/            120%
14/            110%
13/            100%
12/            90%
11/            80%
10/            70%
09/            60%
08/            50%
07/            40%
06/            30%
05/            20%
04/            10%
03/            01%

The Scientist adds an adjustment to the patient's Survival chances based on their own Intelligence score.

Intelligence/+Survival
18/            +50%
17/            +40%
16/            +30%
15/            +20%
14/            +10%
13/            +0%
12/            -10%           
11/            -20%
10/            -30%
09/            -40%
08/            -50%
07/            -60%
06/            -70%
05/            -80%
04/            -90%
03/            -100%

Finally, the Scientist applies additional adjustments to the patient's Survival chance according to the procedure's complexity.
Donor and patient are both men of the same race;                 -0%
Donor and patient are men of different races;                    -10%*
Patient ends up with more than two eyes;                          -20%
Patient ends up with more than two arms/legs;                   -40%
Patient ends up with more than one head;                          -100%
Patient receives body part from non-human animal;                -30%
Patient receives body part from Spawn of Shub-Niggurath;    -60%       

*Patient now counts as a member of both races.

[tkdco2]

Nice! I came up with this idea a while back.

[otiv]

I want to see more necromancy and suturing magic in Carcosa.

We need a Scientist class or subclass.

[tkdco2]

I saw a couple of scientist classes for 3.5E, ditto artificer class. But they would need a lot of modifications to convert them to OD&D.

[Morandir]

I'm pretty sure that one, if not more, of the OD&D based sci-fi games like Xplorers have scientist classes. That would be a good place to start. The mad scientist type definitely has a place in Carcosa, IMO.

[otiv]

You could also just reskin the Specialist class from Lamentations of the Flame Princess, slow down the XP advancement, and give it a scientific equivalent of Sorcerous rituals.

Another idea I had, that I am using in a PBP Carcosa campaign I've started up on Discord, is to repurpose the spell research rules from LotFP as technological research.