Witchcraft in Carcosa

[stevemitchell]

"A note of caution here: The Old Ones (Shub-Niggurath, Hastur, Yog-Sothoth, Cthulhu, et. al.) are the oldest life forms on Carcosa, and they did not arrive there from outer space."

Reviewing this set of messages due to Cooper's new post, I came across Geoffrey's comment from several aeons ago. Strangely enough, for about the same amount of time, I have assumed that the Old Ones did come to Carcosa from outer space--based on my reading of Neal Gaiman's story "I, Cthuhu." Okay, I know it was intended humorously, but Gaiman's origin for the Old Ones was actually as good as any I've seen, and a whole better than Lin Carter's Xothic nonsense. It actually reinforced my belief in the inherent "truth" of the Mythos to think that "I, Cthulhu" provided the necessary backstory for the Carcosa supplement, which in turn preceded the arrival of Cthulhu, Ithaqua, and Shub-Niggurath (among others) on Earth as recounted by Lovecraft and friends.

Oh well, another 1d6 SAN loss . . . .

[geoffrey]

Actually, it makes sense:

The Old Ones started on Carcosa, then they travelled through space and eventually came to planet Earth.

[cleverkobold]

I just saw this thread and enjoyed reading it a lot. It instantly reminded me of Bowie from James Stokoe's Orc Stain comic book. She is basically a swamp witch, whose non-magical abilities line up pretty closely to those discussed here. Additionally, she is an expert at throwing these needle/dart things coated in all sorts of nasty stuff she has brewed up. If I were making a witch class I would definitely include this ability to give the class some combat abilities in addition to its vast non-combat skill. Each needle does no damage but on a hit subjects the target (save allowed) to whatever potion, oil, paste, etc. the Witch dipped it in. I would maybe allow multiple attacks as Fighters when using needles or let a witch throw an extra needle at every odd level, depending on how powerful/useful their other abilities are. 

[hagbard]

I've introduced a shaman subclass to my campaign. It is a subclass of the sorcerer class (same ST and level progression). They fulfill a quasi-healer role, in that they are able to identify and use materials to facilitate healing. They get certain bonuses by being able to identify different plants, herbs, fungi, etc and prepare them as salves and whatnot. The bonuses increase per level, naturally. These aren't all powerful like something you would expect from a cleric, by any means.

They cannot read serpent people writings, however, and cannot perform rituals since they haven't spent their lifetimes studying that sort of thing.

They do worship animal spirits, and can mentally speak with them once per day (like an extra psionic ability, I guess). They also have a good working knowledge of their environment and bonuses to their wilderness survival.

I've thought in the interim about introducing a variant subclass like a witch or warlock, which would act like a malevolent version of the shaman subclass. They would be able to construct poisons and could speak with the unnatural forces to negotiate favors and curses. Not sure about everything, but I think that's how I would spin it if I do it. I'm more afraid of turning the game into a more high fantasy setting if I did too much of this.

[eaterofkittens]

The Thing is Carcosas animals are freaky so animal spirits wouldn't be trickster crow and clever rabbit. More like Raging dust devil and mother worm.

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