New Spells for Carcosa

[Malcadon]

I really like the sorcery system used in the game. It follows the mood I enjoy in sword & sorcery, and is a huge relief from the highly utilitarian spells found in high fantasy games. As awesome as the listed spells are, they are limited to dealing with eldrich horrors. I have been thinking about adding new spells for my own game, but I have been hitting roadblocks coming up with the elaborate rituals and requirements needed to cast such spells.

Much of my inspiration comes from other sword & sorcery games, like Conan the RPG (and maybe that Obsidian Book from Tékumel, if it has spells in it - I cant remember). Once I come up with something good, I will post them. I would also be interested in what you guys come up with.

[bert]

I think you mean the Book of Ebon Bindings, and that too consists entrirely of summonings and dismissals of demonic beings, written in even more elaborate and bloody detail than Carcosas.

I'm not sure about what sort of spells you are talking about adding. I'd be inclined to give Sorcerers new skill-type abilities to use in between conducting the great summonings and bindings, a side benefit of the considerable scholarship that goes into researching such horrible rituals.

In FO! 6 there is an article, Esoteric Arts for Wizardly Know-it-Alls that describes what I mean, and Dr Samsara's Colourful Castings: Summonings Vile and Dark has ideas for lower intensity forms of summoning that can be of more everyday use to an adventuring sorcerer, and The Least Demons in FO! 3, though aimed at Tekumel, has similar ideas again.

[Malcadon]

Yes, it was Book of Ebon Bindings! It has been a bit since I last read it, and from what I remember, it was quite dark and elaborate! ;D

I have been interested in an extended Carcosian spell list that goes beyond just summoning & warding eldrich horrors, like curses & blights, controlling minds & emotions, stealing vigor & youth from beautiful maidens, and so on. Nothing overly flashy (in the way you'll see on a 4e cover), or overly helpful (in a way that would bypass most problems), nor crunchy.

For example, I remember reading about a real life woman - Elizabeth Báthory, the Blood Countess - who feels like something pulled from a Conan yarn. Through her cruelty, she discovered that the blood of young maidens made her skin smooth and beautiful, so she gone through elaborate means to acquire and bath in their virgin blood! I find her torture chamber method much more interesting then the overplayed bloody hickies used by vampires, and making it a Carcosian spell would be awesome, even if its just an overly elaborate method of skin-care.

I'm also interested in curses that require to use items from the target's person - hair, blood, sweet-socked clothing, and such - that can be used to hurt, inflict with some ailment, or have some creature set upon them. Such ailments could be discomfort, illness, nightmares, insanity, lameness, sexual dysfunction, and so on.

I remember reading something Vincent N. Darlage - the guy who wrote a number of the Conan RPG source books - said about how slight-of-hand is a more effective way at showing a Sorcerer's power, then wasting their energy and resources on actual sorcery, and I liked that. That is, he once knocked his players flatfooted, then a Sorcerer cast a fireball in a Conan game! What they did not know, was that the Sorcerer used slight-of-hand throw a firebomb. A Sorcerer who relies only on such "trickery" is just a charlatan, but elaborate tricks can make a Sorcerer seem even more powerful - even to other Sorcerers.

[bert]

Well you definitely want to look at spatilomancy, divination and magic conducted using faeces and spasmatomancy, similar but using the twitchings and convulsions of a body.

A method of divination...

The Apparatus of Geshwendik the Mighty

Currently employed by the Autarch of Ytr, this elaborate metal construction has a metal frame capable of rotating in any direction into which a human can be bound immobile. the movement is controlled by a pen like device attached to a complex arrangement of cogs, and a gold plate. A huge gold plated needle can be introduced to touch the skin of the held victim and the user then inscrbes the question he wants answered by the Gods on the gold plate using the pen. The body of the victim is rotated and translated such that the question is inscribed in his flesh by the needle, to any depth desired by the user. The twitching and gibbering of the victim is interpreted by the attendant priests as to the answer. The current Chief Augur is famous for his elegant handwriting, decorated by curlicues and flourishes, and is much despised by the hereditary caste of inscription slaves who get to ride in this device. ( with thanks to Franz Kafka).

This the sort of thing you mean?

[vladicu]

Feb 14, 2011 21:14:34 GMT -6 Malcadon said:

I really like the sorcery system used in the game. It follows the mood I enjoy in sword & sorcery, and is a huge relief from the highly utilitarian spells found in high fantasy games.

Well said, sir. Wagner's Bloodstone comes to mind, but all the usual suspects then remain the same ol same ol too...

Even the best of MERP touches this part of the game and often coldly - ICE.

[Morandir]

Feb 16, 2011 21:21:36 GMT -6 Malcadon said:

I remember reading something Vincent N. Darlage - the guy who wrote a number of the Conan RPG source books - said about how slight-of-hand is a more effective way at showing a Sorcerer's power, then wasting their energy and resources on actual sorcery, and I liked that. That is, he once knocked his players flatfooted, then a Sorcerer cast a fireball in a Conan game! What they did not know, was that the Sorcerer used slight-of-hand throw a firebomb. A Sorcerer who relies only on such "trickery" is just a charlatan, but elaborate tricks can make a Sorcerer seem even more powerful - even to other Sorcerers.

There's an episode at the beginning of the Conan story "The Scarlet Citadel" (IIRC) that illustrates this quite well; the sorcerer in the story, having cornered Conan, walks up to him and renders him unconscious simply by touching his arm. It turns out the sorcerer was wearing a ring with a small spike coated in a powerful knockout poison.

With that in mind, it might also be interesting to cook up (pun intended!) some sort of alchemy system, to allow for that kind of chicanery.