Idea for a Ritual

[tkdco2]

Here's a ritual I came up with for an adventure. The adventure I'm planning to run is actually a MERP adventure altered for use in Carcosa. *GASP SACRILEGE!* Please let me know if you like this one or not. Any suggestions are welcome.

The Profane Animation



This 12-hour ritual must be completed when both moons are full and in the apex of the sky. The sorcerer must personally slay 2 adults the same race as the sorcerer and sew the corpses together with their innards. The ritual summons a diembodied entity that will inhabit the joined corpses and perform a single task for the sorcerer. Treat the new creature as a flesh golem. When the creature finishes its task, or if it is destroyed before the task is complete, the entity will leave the body, which will immediately disintegrate.

NOTE: I did find a picture online that can show what such a creature may look like, but it's NSFW, and it appears in a published supplement. Not sure waht the rules about posting such an image here are.

[tkdco2]

Any feedback on this? I'm planning to use it in a game.

[terje]

Its a cool ritual, and by cool I of course mean gruesome and horrible!

To make it a bit more carcosa-esque you might let the disembodied entity materialize as an ectoplasmic ooze* that envelopes the sewen-together corpses. It extends thin wavering pseudopods two feet around the flesh golem.

* Duh, I did not know there was such a thing as Ectoplasmic Ooze (but I should have guessed, its kind of obvious now that I think of it). Of course the thing animating the flesh golem need not be this specific monster. But some semi-transparent slime with tentacles would make the thing more lovecraftian-ish. :/

[tkdco2]

Good idea, thanks for sharing. Ectoplasmic Ooze sounds like a great fit for Carcosa. I may use it in a future encounter.

In case you were wondering how the corpse may (but not necessarily) look like, here's a review of a LotFP product; scroll down to the last image. WARNING: NSFW images. Mods, just let me know if it's not allowed, and I'll take it down.


monsterbrains.blogspot.com/2014/08/no-salvation-for-witches.html

[tkdco2]

I finally got to use this ritual in an adventure. The PCs and their allies were able to save their village, but at great cost. Can you say TPK, boys and girls?

[Malcadon]

As awesome as the original (unabridged) spells form Carcosa are, I want more than warding and summoning-related spells. I support any effort to make spells, rituals, artifacts, alchemy concoctions, potion brewing, bodies of work (books, scrolls, tablets, etc.), or slight-of-hand trickery that enhances the game and setting with elaborate preparation, sinister requirements, non-flashy/utilitarian effects, all with an unsettling, occult vibe about it.

I want divination to be about drug-use, blood-letting, and reading entrails.
I want nasty, possibly toxic concoctions that work like potions.
I want slight-of-hand tricks that fool people into thinking that they are powerful Sorcerers by using strings, smoke, and mirrors.
I want Sorcerers to be able to learn by eating people's brains and to talk with heads that were severed & shrunken.
I want old Sorcerers to bath in the blood of young maidens in order to maintains youth, beauty, and virility.
I want manuals about producing malformed Homunculi formed in beakers form the mix of blood, semen and menstrual fluid.
I want full-body tribal tattoos or henna that will provide protection (saving throw vs normal weapon attack), if the wearer is fighting naked.

[tkdco2]

Nov 21, 2016 4:04:10 GMT -6 Malcadon said:

As awesome as the original (unabridged) spells form Carcosa are, I want more than warding and summoning-related spells. I support any effort to make spells, rituals, artifacts, alchemy concoctions, potion brewing, bodies of work (books, scrolls, tablets, etc.), or slight-of-hand trickery that enhances the game and setting with elaborate preparation, sinister requirements, non-flashy/utilitarian effects, all with an unsettling, occult vibe about it.

I want divination to be about drug-use, blood-letting, and reading entrails.
I want nasty, possibly toxic concoctions that work like potions.
I want slight-of-hand tricks that fool people into thinking that they are powerful Sorcerers by using strings, smoke, and mirrors.
I want Sorcerers to be able to learn by eating people's brains and to talk with heads that were severed & shrunken.
I want old Sorcerers to bath in the blood of young maidens in order to maintains youth, beauty, and virility.
I want manuals about producing malformed Homunculi formed in beakers form the mix of blood, semen and menstrual fluid.
I want full-body tribal tattoos or henna that will provide protection (saving throw vs normal weapon attack), if the wearer is fighting naked.

Those can all be done. Earlier today, I was considering allowing the Alchemist NPC class in Carcosa.

I was reading about the idea of sorcerers eating brains to gain knowledge, particularly rituals. I can just imagine a sorcerer talking to a fighting man about an enemy they have just slain:

"You will eat his heart and gain his strength. I shall eat his brain and gain all his knowledge."

[Lorgalis]

In my head... it's Carcosa so everything goes. So there are magic spells akin to standard ad&d spells but they are foul, twisted and dangerous and rare or one shot/few charges cypher tech akin to numenera.