Carcassay: Titan Rat City

The ancient world of Harth withers beneath its dying sun…but it’s not dead yet.

Welcome to the strange and dangerous city of Carcassay, huddled below the skeleton of a titan rat, sprawling above the ruins of countless dead civilizations. This is where folk come to find wealth, power, revenge, secrets, oblivion… and everything in between.

Carcassay is a sandbox city adventure. There are many locations to explore in, around, and under the city. Players can explore any place at any time, and may radically reshape the city’s politics, economy, religions, and physical existence. There are standard dungeons stacked under the city, and GMs are encouraged to keep adding more dungeons… all the way down.

Tone. It leans more toward low fantasy or sword-and-sorcery. Most shops look like real shops. Most people look like real people. But strange and horrible things lurk everywhere as soon as you start to scratch the surface. This is my Lankhmar.

Carcassay is a vast, bizarre city. It has over 100 locations where you can meet Chaos cultists, Lawful knights, retired adventurers, shopkeepers, brewers, musicians, artists, scientists, hermits, royalty, beggars, doctors, space vampires, eldritch horrors, machine priests, crab colonists, mushroom farmers, mummies, assassins, and diplomats from distant lands… and the moon. And every one of them has goods or services to sell, and a quest (or three) to offer. 

What sort of quests? Fetch a relic, assassinate a rival, find a relative, steal a soul, implant an agent, cure a disease, stop a riot, solve a murder that hasn’t happened yet, hunt a thief, locate a shrine… the list goes on. And for every Quest, there is a specific Reward: money, weapons, relics, Chaos mutations, exclusive memberships, information, Angelic miracles… the list goes on.

This is a place where you can make a lot of money, but also where you can spend that money on interesting goods and services. 

Factions? We have a few. Seven Chaos cults, five knightly orders, two mercenary companies, four wealthy families, six (seven!) Corpse Lords, foreign diplomats, rival innkeepers, rival tavern owners, plus all the dungeon-delving gangs currently mucking about underground. When you grow weary of all the adventures at ground level, there are three classic dungeons buried under the city to explore.

This book contains months (if not years) of campaigning. Enjoy the Chaos.

ADVENTURE TYPE:  Low Level / Mid Level / Combat / Exploration / Fantasy City / Eldritch Horror / Urban / Sandbox

DESIGN NOTES

• This adventure is intended for low and mid-level characters from Level 1-7
• Players explore a large fantasy city, encounter numerous NPCs and monsters, explore classic dungeons, and engage with diverse factions
• 100+ unique encounter locations in the city, in the surrounding countryside, and underground
• Too many original magic items
• 50+ original monsters 
• Numerous maps and illustrations 
• Estimated play time: A medium-length campaign

FILES

This product is 130 pages in length and includes one PDF file. The adventure itself is system-agnostic. The three Appendices at the end include stat blocks for the monsters in Fifth Edition, Old School Essentials, and Into the Odd/Cairn.

CONTENT INCLUDES: DM notes, location descriptions with read-aloud text, random encounter generators, NPC notes, creature stat blocks, original creatures, original treasures and magic items, numerous maps, various illustrations

PRODUCT KEYWORDS: urban, Lankhmar, city adventure, city setting, Law, Chaos, factions, angels, horrors, cultists, dungeoneers, dragons, saints, moon, undead, dungeons, knights, clerics, crabs, dryads, miners, mercenaries, diplomats, magicians, vampires