A Study in Dust and Stone, Session 0: Main Character creation

This marks the beginning of a new solo campaign for Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition. To build our protagonist, I utilized the Investigator Creation Wizard within Foundry VTT, allowing the digital dice to help shape a man caught between Old World prestige and New World shadows.

The Investigator: Lorenzo Bartolini

• Age: 49
• Occupation: Antiquarian / Scholar
• Residence: New Orleans (formerly Florence, Italy)
• Credit Rating: 60 (Wealthy)

Lorenzo is a man of refined tastes and heavy secrets. Born into the Tuscan elite, his ancestral roots are anchored in Villa Bartolini, a decaying 17th-century estate in the hills of Fiesole. While his physical presence is now in the humid air of New Orleans, his mind remains trapped in the villa’s sprawling, shadow-choked library.

Statistical Highlights

Lorenzo is a scholar, not a brawler. In the lethal world of Call of Cthulhu, his low combat stats are a looming death sentence—a fact I plan to mitigate by introducing a combat-capable "hired hand" backup character later.

• The Intellectual Core: Exceptional scores in Literature and Library Use reflect decades spent poring over vellum.
• The Keen Eye: A strangely high Spot Hidden suggests a man used to looking for things that don't want to be found.
• The Forbidden Knowledge: His Occult skill is far higher than a "respectable" academic's should be.

Background

Note: most of these entries were rolled on random tables then fleshed out with a bit of imagination. The tables are part of the Foundry CoC core content module, so I suppose they're on the investigator handbook (I didn't check because I'm lazy).

The Facade: The Dante Alighieri Society

On paper, Lorenzo is a prominent member of this society, dedicated to promoting Italian culture in Louisiana. In reality, the Society is a front for a cabal of collectors obsessed with Renaissance-era occult manuscripts. This secret society provides the narrative engine for Lorenzo’s high Occult skill and will hopefully serve as a primary source of hooks—and perhaps horrors—during the adventure.

The Mentor: Giuseppe Fiorelli

Lorenzo’s worldview was shaped by the legendary archaeologist who revolutionized the Pompeii excavations. From Fiorelli, Lorenzo learned that history is not just a story—it is a physical tomb that must be meticulously unsealed.

The Treasure: The Non-Euclidean Astrolabe

His most prized possession is a brass navigational tool that defies terrestrial logic. Its interchangeable plates depict constellations and celestial alignments that do not exist on Earth. It is a beautiful, maddening relic that suggests the stars were once right—somewhere else.

The Physical Toll: The Missing Finger

Lorenzo is missing the tip of his right index finger. He claims it was a mishap with a "cursed papyrus" during a dig in Egypt. Whether it was a biological rot or something that simply ate the digit across space and time remains a favorite mystery of his.

The Moral Compass: Fierce Loyalty

He is a man of few friends, but for those who earn his trust, he is immovable. In a game where Sanity is a dwindling resource, this loyalty may be his only anchor—or his ultimate undoing.

Closing Thought

We have the man, the motive, and the mystery. Why did a wealthy Florentine scholar leave the safety of Fiesole for the occult tinderbox of New Orleans? We’ll let the dice decide as the first session begins.