The Seer He Said

"Are you sure about this? You'll see things that no lad or lady should ever see." (Sharpieboss)

I've been tackling some pretty big topics on this blog so far, from how to apply wounds to Into The Odd to how magic items should work. I think this post will probably be a small break from the fundamentals. Recently, I have been seeing lots of really cool tables all focusing on one subject such as bogeymen or post-apocalyptic worlds filled with nuns. Of course, this post is going to be more than just tables, it also has two arcanum and two houserules based on prophets. Enjoy the brain-fuel, I foresee that it might be a boon, and there might be more posts of this nature coming.

The Tables

D6	The Prophet Is A(n)...	...	With...
1	Child	Male	A gangly figure.
2	Adolescent	Male	A gangly figure.
3	Young Adult	Female	A gangly figure.
4	Adult	Female	A willowy figure.
5	Elderly	Hermaphrodite	A willowy figure.
6	Dying	Hermaphrodite	A statuesque figure.

D6	The Prophet Utters...	...
1	“People in hidden chambers	Plot your end.”
2	“The snakes and spiders and rats and beetles	Wait for you to finally face them.”
3	“Things with cloven hooves	Have learned your name and now whisper it.”
4	“Beautiful sycophants	Wait for you to fall into their trap.”
5	“The burning stars	Shall be lusting after you soon enough.”
6	“Monstrous little children	Will lead you to great fortune.”

D6	The Prophet Delivers The Truth...
1	By letting their runic facepaint shift and undulate, forming the truth.
2	By puking forth a stream of writing and letting it fall into a bronze bowl.
3	While clawing at their white eyes, streaks of red travel across their face as it maps out fate.
4	By using their many-mirrored lantern that holds a small prismatic flame.
5	While reading one of their many books, their face can barely be seen as it shifts while pages turn.
6	In a properly dramatic music piece, accompanied by their lute made of silver.

The Arcanum

The Seer's Eyes

A red halo made of bramble and detached eyes of humans and animals alike. It allows the wearer to focus in on one person and see that person's thoughts in a little reenactment around them. The person whose thoughts are being read are allowed a WIL save, if they succeed then they feel a splitting headache and possibly know something's off.

Every time the user activates this arcanum, they roll 1D6 and record this result, adding it onto all other D6's rolled this way. Once this result is equal to or higher than 16, the halo grows legs and retreats off into the night. It holds all the knowledge of the previous character that used this, the next user is given this knowledge until the process continues again. 

The Prophet's Jaw

The lower jaw of a prophet, the teeth are unusually white and their tongue is like black licorice. If held up to the user's head and the user speaks an action into it, the jaw can answer only yes or no if this action will bring danger to that PC within the next minute. For instance, if a bomb was hooked up to a button, and a PC spoke to the jaw "would I be in danger if I hit this button?" the jaw would answer "yes"; but if the bomb was delayed by 3 minutes, the skull would answer "no" to that question. Tongues can be sewn into the jaw's mouth so the skull can answer more questions instead of just "will I be in danger?"

This can only be used safely once per day, if it is used over this limit, roll 1D6 below.

D6	Miscast Result
1-3	The jaw simply lies about the danger ahead.
4	The jaw bites the PC’s face, dealing D6 STR damage.
5	The jaw tells a disturbing story of all the ways that the PC could fuck up, the PC takes D8 WIL damage.
6	The arcanum works as intended, this time...

The Houserules

Prophet's blood is writing. This is a basic truth that all spellcasters know. In replacement of blood, streams of near-indecipherable writing come out of their wounds. This writing slips through all nonmagical surfaces and it dissipates into the floor, it needs to be read fast. The writing tells truths and lies of the people closest to them. When a prophet bleeds, a PC can make a WIL save to decipher the writing. If they succeed, they 1D4 WIL damage (that cannot drop them below 1 WIL, and is restored over a short rest) and are told a truth about somebody in the room by the writing. If they fail, they take 1D4 WIL damage (which can drop them below 1 WIL and is not restored over a short rest) and are told a lie about somebody in the room by the writing. It is highly recommended that you whisper the truths and lies into the ears of the players who read, ignoring those who didn't read. 

Fate is inevitable, it shows your prophecy with palpable pride. Every prophecy should have two parameters, a sign and a situation. A sign is basically what signs lead up to the prophecy. So, the sign of the prophecy "Death bears a stinger" would be a stinger. The situation is what will happen once the prophecy is fulfilled. So, in the prophecy "Death bears a stinger", the situation would be death, in some way, shape, or form. Simple, right? Of course, when told, a prophecy can hide either one of these parameters. Every prophecy starts with 1 fate point, the GM records this. At the start of every session, the GM rolls 1D4, if this is higher than the fate points of the prophecy, the prophecy gains a new fate point. Any time during the session, the GM can subtract 1 from the D4 rolled to reveal a sign of the prophecy in play. If the GM doesn't do this at least once in the session, they subtract 1 fate point from the prophecy, to a minimum of 1 fate point. Once the prophecy reaches 3 fate points, the situation in the prophecy occurs. This situation may be avoidable by the players with smart thinking and ingenuity.

The second rule is a bit tricky, here's an example.
Session 1: A PC, Jimble, meets with a prophet, curious, they get their prophecy foretold. The elderly man whispers "Death bares tattered clothes." The PCs look at the old man, and immediately impale him with a spear out of paranoia. There is now a prophecy with a sign (tattered clothes) and a situation (death!), this prophecy has 1 fate point.
Session 2: The GM rolls 1D4 for the prophecy and gets a 3, the prophecy is now at 2 fate points. The GM spends 2 "points"  out of the 3 that they rolled to make a hostile hooded beggar appear as an encounter, along with a body wearing tattered clothes impaled on a pike.
Session 3: The GM rolls 1D4 again, and gets a 4! The prophecy is fulfilled, and the situation will happen this session or next. The players cut through the dungeon, a few brave souls die, but Jimble still lives. A fateful side-room in the dungeon holds a hooded beggar in tattered clothes, holding a bandolier of potions and a ritual knife, he is also riding an obese plague knight that wields two flails. The beggar screams "I have dreamed of how your blood will taste on my blade!", a fight ensues.

It is unfortunate that even the young are cursed with foresight. (Sharpieboss)