The Frenchman's Curse

A parasitic spell for LotFP or similar.

The death of a Frenchman, if not "the Frenchman" of my notes.

When the Frenchman dies, all who witness his dying breath save or catch the curse.

Spellcasters

The curse lives in a spell slot. It prefers high-level spell slots, but can be persuaded to take a lower-level slot temporarily. You cannot cast the curse, it just lives there.

When another spellcaster witnesses you casting a spell, they must save or catch the curse also. This is how the curse "reproduces". If you are cunning, you may be able to coax the curse onto a scroll, or convince it to allow itself to be "cast" into another host (without leaving a copy behind). It knows that the target will get a save in both of these cases, so it needs to be a good deal.

When you die, the curse dies with you.

Others

The curse cannot "reproduce" properly if you can't cast spells, so instead it seeks out spellcasters. Intermediate hosts have disadvantage on saves vs. magic, and their skin is covered in crawling tattoos that are offensive, enraging, insulting, confusing, distracting, and profane. Fortunately, these tattoos are only visible to Read Magic, True Seeing, or those with second sight.

"The Op Tattoo", Robert Williams, 1993 (not public domain or anything like that)

On a 1-in-6, the intermediate host has some innate magical potential, and instead carries the curse asymptomatically.

When you die, the curse will pass into all who witness your death. If you manage to otherwise rid yourself of the curse, it will leave behind an empty spell slot.

References

Talking to your spells:

• Spell Consultation
• "It's still magic even if you know how it's done"

Parasites with intermediate hosts:

• Toxoplasmosis in Rodents

Memetic diseases:

• The Gardens of Ynn, probably

Some Spells

These spells are meant for a nautical LotFP campaign. I haven't tested any of them yet, but I'll let you know how it goes if I do. They're intended to use the draft rules for risky casting.

Drown

Magic User 1
Duration: 2 rounds/level
Rage: Touch
Special: Must have unwillingly taken drowning damage to learn this spell.
Trick a brain into drowning. Each round that the target fails a save (paralyzation), choose to either advance the spell a stage or return to 0th stage. The 0th degree takes effect immediately.
Stage 0: Target cannot move, but can speak and breathe. Further saves at a disadvantage.
Stage 1: Additionally, target cannot breathe and takes 1d6 subdual damage this round.
Stage 2: Additionally, target takes 1d6 (normal) damage.
Stage 3+: Additionally, target loses one point from a random ability score (permanent).
If subdual damage + real damage > HP, the target is unconscious and the spell ends. The target must be physiologically able to drown.

Miscasts

1. Also trick your own brain. The spell affects you the same as the target (use target’s saves for progression).
2. Trick everyone’s brain. The spell affects everyone around you in a 120’ radius (use target’s saves for progression).
3. PTSD. Must save or flee from water. Rerolls mean save is at progressive penalty.
4. Water elemental that loves drowning people is jealous, attacks you (1 HD/level).
5. Casting this spell is always risky. Reroll frees the caster from this result, as they become hardened to its effects.
6. Target is immune to the spell, and can now hold their breath twice as long as usual. Caster grows to irrationally hate them if they don’t already.

Gills

Magic User 1
Duration: 6 Turns/level
Range: Touch
As Water Breathing, except lose ability to breathe air. The reverse is Lungs.

Miscasts

1. Permanent deep one mutation (nictitating eyelids, webbed fingers, etc.)
2. Spell is permanent.
3. Greater mutation for duration of spell.
4. Gills are non-functional, and now you can't breathe.
5. The fish love you, maybe a little too much. Actions and visibility underwater are hindered by schools of fish, if any are nearby.
6. You have been chosen for a quest from Dagon (or other suitable entity). Details will come to you in your dreams.

Raft

Cleric 1
Providence sends a raft of sufficient buoyancy and size to support 1d4 person-days/level. It appears on the horizon drifting towards you, such that it can be reached by an unencumbered swimmer without issue (barring other circumstances). The form will vary but it will have no inherent means of propulsion. Some forms may include:

• volcanic raft
• iceberg
• dense seaweed mat
• carcass of a great beast
• empty barrels & crates lashed together
• low-lying fossil cloud
• strange metal disc
• empty shell of a dragon turtle
• ants

Read Wakes

Magic User 1
Duration: 1 Round/level
Range: Self
In a perfect Newtonian world, information is never lost, it merely gets quieter and quieter. This spell lets you read the history of the ocean before you. Once each round, you may learn one of the following things:

• What was the bearing of the most recent ship to pass here, and when was that?
• What direction is the nearest stationary object?
• Where and when did anything most recently break the surface of the water intermittently (like a whale surfacing or a stone skipping)?
• etc.

This spell does not work in the rain or when the water is otherwise busy. If a question is asked again, you can read further back in history (e.g. the second most recent ship to pass).

Miscasts

1. Visions of the rain—severe headache incapacitates caster for 1d6 rounds/level. No information gained.
2. Echoes of creation—permanent deafness (this does not hinder the spell).
3. Ghosts of the flood—each day save or be possessed by an antediluvian ghost (with their own, worse CHA, WIS, & INT). They lose interest after a week of saves.
4. Harmony of nature—save or be compelled to join your ghostly whale friends swimming through the sea.
5. Bad point of reference—information given is actually about the future. This could raise issues about free will, but don’t let it bother you. At least it’s good information.
6. Transmission from the stars—1d4 permanent damage to a random ability score, and you learn a weird new spell.

Transmute

Magic User 1
Duration: Permanent
Range: Touch
When you learn this spell, roll for two materials, then roll for 1 more material/level. When you gain a level, roll again for an additional material. You can transmute the volume of 1 person/level from any one material you know to any other material you know. Allow saves as appropriate. Some materials include others, and this is not a mistake. For example, “stone” includes “marble”. You cannot choose to transmute to the more specific material if you do not know how.

Miscasts

1. Transmutation fails, and target is immutable to any future magic.
2. Transmutation fails, and you forget the target material.
3. Transmutation is successful, but only for 3d6 (1d4: 1-seconds, 2-minutes, 3-hours, 4-days).
4. Target goes to a random target material.
5. Target goes to a random target material, and you learn to transmute that material!
6. Transmutation is successful, but grafts itself to your body.

Materials (4d20)

If you re-roll a material, move up or down the list until you find a new one.

4d20	Material	Notes, Examples
4	illusion	like a hologram or something
5	lava
6	diamond
7	sponge
8	snakes
9	poison	retain form but become poisonous
10	nitrogen	~79% of air, asphyxiant
11	mercury
12	liquor
13	jade
14	ink
15	gunpowder
16	bakelite
17	amber
18	aerogel
19	gold
20	wool	felted, loose, pelt
21	wax
22	tin
23	silver
24	sand
25	rubber
26	rags
27	needles
28	ice
29	chocolate
30	ceramic
31	brimstone	i.e. sulfur
32	arsenic
33	steel
34	mud
35	fungus	edible, myconids, mycelium, magic
36	flesh
37	charcoal
38	bread
39	wood
40	metal
41	keratin	hair, fingernails, fur, hooves, horns, feathers
42	dung
43	leather
44	stone
45	bone
46	chalk
47	clay	unfired
48	fruit
49	glass
50	oil
51	tubers
52	ashes	the solid remains of any fire
53	bronze
54	chitin	exoskeletons, scales
55	copper
56	lead
57	paper	papier-mâché, origami, stacked
58	ropes
59	salt
60	seeds
61	soap
62	water
63	wine
64	bottles	normal bottles, anything hollow and bottle-like
65	acid	standard "fantasy acid"
66	air
67	ants	for range purposes, maybe consider a hive as one organism
68	blood
69	honey
70	ivory
71	leaves
72	marble
73	nacre
74	oxygen	does not itself burn, but in pure oxygen most things do
75	rust
76	sodium	reacts with water
77	tea	pressed, loose, steeped
78	ectoplasm	makes a thing into a ghost, or vice versa
79	radium	does radiation make superheroes or corpses?
80	void	as sphere of annihilation

Materials (flat)

The table above is vaguely weighted with more common materials in the middle, so that hopefully you aren't stuck with "Transmute lava/ectoplasm/jade" as your only options. But I've been wanting to try out Spwack's thing, so you can also use this to roll flat across the whole table if you feel chaotic.

Here Are Some Characters

Here are some backgrounds for characters. It's mostly specialists, because that's where I started.

Your specialist . . .

• is a jeweler, seeking gems of great value.
• is an explorer, seeking or returned from exotic lands.
• is an archaeologist, searching for the secrets of lost civilizations.
• is a political exile, waiting to return home.
• is a black priest, charged with keeping the church's secrets secret.
• is a barbarian, skilled in ways that civilization has forgotten.
• is a migrant worker, willing to help out locals for a bed or a meal.
• is a tinker, but will take on other odd jobs.
• is a busker, but with a lost instrument.
• is a common beggar.
• is an organ grinder, whose monkey ran away.
• comes from a nomadic culture.
• is a traveling merchant, freshly cleaned out from a deal gone awry.
• is a fence, but is branching out into "acquisitions".
• is a jester who spoke too much truth to power.
• is an actor, separated from their troupe.
• is an acrobat.
• ran away from a terrible apprenticeship.
• is a sailor on shore leave.
• trained as a domestic servant.
• is a smuggler, on the lookout for new routes.
• is a quack doctor, peddling alcoholic tonics.
• is a professional burglar.
• is a pickpocket street urchin. Singing optional.
• is a con artist, in search of a mark.
• is a con artist, whose parter was recently taken in.
• is a gangster, whose connections have soured recently.
• is a rake, seeking to take his mind off of a doubtless life-threatening liver disorder.
• is a spy, awaiting orders from a foreign nation.
• is a bandit/pirate (depending on feasibility).
• is a poacher.
• is a halfling in search of adventure.
• is a trained assassin.
• was a military scout.
• escaped slavery.

Your fighter . . .

• was a bouncer.
• is a bodyguard.
• is a noble knight on an inscrutable quest.
• is a digraced knight, exiled from the court.
• was an infantryman.
• is a mercenary, between jobs.
• is a bounty hunter.
• is a barbarian, unmatched in the art of combat.
• escaped from a laboratory.
• was a prizefighter, but is getting old.
• apprenticed as a blacksmith.
• was a collier or miner.
• escaped from prison.
• is a lawman.
• is a bandit/pirate (depending on feasibility).
• is a dwarf.
• is from a long line of warriors.
• is a deserter.
• is a berserker.
• is a local hero in their remote hometown.
• was an Olympian athlete.

Your magic user . . .

• is a wild talent with psionic powers.
• made a pact with the devil.
• speaks with elementals.
• is an elf.
• is proud to be self-taught.
• learned Atlantean secrets.
• was abducted by aliens.
• apprenticed with an insane wizard.
• graduated valedictorian at Wizard Academy.
• dropped out of Wizard Academy.
• was taught magic by nature spirits.
• has dragon blood running through their veins.
• has no memory of his life before now.
• happens to have not died in the last century (but is still mortal).
• was an advisor to kings and generals.
• died once. Might even still be dead. Isn't sure.
• is a bard.
• can't return to it's home dimension.

Your cleric . . .

• is an orphan, raised by the church.
• once was blind, but now can see.
• once could see, but now is blind.
• is a pacifist.
• is a reformed death cultist.
• once received a vision.
• is personally an atheist.
• is a millenarian, convinced that the end is nigh.
• is an inquisitor, charged with rooting out heresy.
• acts obsessive about rituals. Practices them like clockwork.
• is a shaman, who calls upon ancestral spirits.
• is a druid, who remembers the old ways.
• is not the child of prophecy, but sees how you could make that mistake.
• was an ascetic monk, living on the fringes of society.
• was recently accused of heretical beliefs.
• is a street preacher, spreading the gospel to all who will listen.
• is a pamphleteer, too shy to preach on the streets.
• almost died once, but was saved by grace alone.