Masters of Carcosa - Session 11

This is the first session Chris P joined the fight. There were two Chris’s on G+ that were consummate players. Like Eric, they were almost always down to play whenever you would post a game. Players like that make running a poorly organized campaign work.

When I would share invites on G+ for the Masters of Carcosa sessions I would include rumours and news the players had learned. There was also a post on my G+ community for the game where I would keep all the loose threads up to date. For this session the players knew the following:

• Trade between Invak and Jahar presumably remains on hiatus for now while Jahar’s merchants waits for this cult to move on or be replaced.
• The merchants will travel East to the Citadel of Brown Men known as Lessel.
• Deep One sightings at the Lake to the South.

During the session they would learn more about the deep ones, who apparently had emerald belts. (The deep ones in this game were effectively Mer-Man from Masters of the Universe.) This was the rumour the players decided to follow, resulting in a very straight forward session compared to some of the others: kill some cultists, free some captives, find some treasure.

The party finally learned some more rituals, not that it really mattered. The rituals didn’t really match the vibe of the game, even though Chris’s character was a real dirt bag sorcerer. He was constantly trying to learn and find more, and I basically didn’t really want them in my game so was kind of a real dick when it came to having them show up in play. For the most part playing a Sorcerer was just the hard-mode version of playing a Fighter. The classes were the same, but Sorcerers had harder XP requirements.

The next session the players will return to the “abandoned” Space Alien outpost that kicked off the campaign. It’s kind of neat that it happened to happen at what would be the midpoint of the campaign.

My Carcosa-style recap for the session is quite terse, because the session itself was very to the point.

Players:

• Chris P: Bone Crone, Bone Women Sorcerer
• Eric Boyd: Orange Julia, Orange Women Fighter
• Beloch Shrike: Renoir, Red Man Fighter
• Dion: Asha-Rea, Ulfire Women Fighter
• Willie Burke: Grenn, White Man Sorcerer

Recap:

• The party decides to remain in and around Glom for the time being.
• The city is clearly built within snake men ruins, but no one in town seems to know or care—or at least won’t talk to the party about it.
• Rumours of emerald wearing deep ones send the party south to the lake.
• There they see a group of cultists camped near the statue and pillars visible last session.
• They approach closer and start examining the pillars: rituals!
• Then they get shot at.
• A fight!
• The obvious cultists put up a mediocre fight, missing like the cast of G.I. Joe.
• The party are victorious after a protracted fight. Captives are freed. New rituals learned. Success!

Treasure:

• 500 GP
• 5 Gems: 2700 GP
• 6 wax figurines of deep ones
• 4 Naginatas (6 grabbed by captives)

Rituals:

Summon Amphibious Ones - This eleven-hour ritual can be completed only on a fog-shrouded night. The Sorcerer must obtain the root of potency found only in ruined apothecaries of the Snake-Men. The sacrifice is a virgin White girl. As her life leaves her body, 10–100 of the Amphibious Ones will coalesce out of the mists.

The Blasphemous Sacrifice (to Bind Amphibious Ones) - This ritual cannot be performed on its own, but only as an adjunct to the SUMMON THE AMPHIBIOUS ONES ritual. It adds an hour to the time required to complete the ritual (thus twelve hours total). The sacrifice is further subjected to an hour of unspeakable tortures before being slain. At the end of the rituals, the Sorcerer will have complete control over the horde of Amphibious Ones for 24 hours.

The Call of Cthulhu (to Summon Cthulhu) - This 24 hour ritual must be cast while waist deep in the polluted waters of Carcosa. Once the ritual chanting and genuflection begins, the sorcerer must drown a Purple Men at the end of each hour of the ritual. All the victims must be a willing sacrifices to the Great Old One Cthulhu. When the life leaves the last of the Purple Men, Cthulhu will rise up from the waters.