AUGURY
This is something anyone can do, and requires only going to a temple, church, or shrine and performing the correct ritual - and making a sacrifice, of course - to ask a divine power (a god, a saint, or a local spirit) if they approve of a given course of action or a person, place, or thing. The important thing is that you're not asking the divine to predict the future or how likely a plan is to succeed, you're asking whether they will be pleased or displeased by something.
Gods and spirits will answer to anyone who performs the rituals correctly, but saints will only answer to heliopapists. Different entities want different things, and will respond differently depending on what you're asking about.
Performing Augury
- Go to the entities shrine or temple, offer the sacrifice, undertake the ritual. The entity will tell you whether they approve of what you ask.
- The referee secretly rolls a d100 on the chart below, with the given modifiers.
- Receive the answer: auspicious, ill, or terrible.
If the roll is under your target value, the augury is accurate. Otherwise it will be random (odd result = ill, even = auspicious). If the augury fails and the dice show double odd numbers (ie 55) then the result is terrible and and you must do something drastic (a quest, a lot of sacrifices, etc) to avoid a horrible fate. If you were asking about a specific course of action then you should very much not do it. If you persist in doing that thing anyway then you /will/ encounter dire peril.
IMPORTANT NOTE: If the Referee does not already know 'true' answer to an augury, then they are required to roll for it and abide by the roll.
The Augury Chart
The sacrifice offered determines your base chance. Also all sacrifices must be given in pairs - one to be sacrificed, one as payment to the priests.
- Bottle of wine, roast meat, etc, worth at least 1gp - Base 40% chance
- Three chickens, a dog, a lamb, etc - Base 50% chance
- A cow, three goats or sheep, a horse, etc - Base 60% chance
- An exotic or monstrous animal such as an albino bull, live manticore, etc - Base 70% chance
- Human sacrifice - Base 80% chance but it automatically counts as a blasphemy (see below) unless you do it in a place where the gods cannot sea.
Bear in mind you can sacrifice just about anything - the above is a base guideline guideline.
Additional modifiers:
- Sacrifice has deep personal meaning to petitioner: +5%
- Favoured sacrifice: +20%
- Rare offering: Automatic success
Donation: +X% where X is the square root of the money donated. X is also the x-in-20 chance the high cleric, archpriest, or otherwise named head of the temple will take a personal interest in you.
You can perform auguries yourself outside of a temple or shrine, but you gain a -10% penalty.
If you don't have a sacrifice to offer you can promise one and use it as the base chance with a -10% penalty, but if you fail to offer the sacrifice there will be dire consequences.
All auguries must be accompanied by proclamations and praise to the entity.
BLASPHEMY
Whenever you blaspheme, mock the gods, doubt their existence, or otherwise invite a lightning bolt from on high, you have an x-in-20 chance of being cursed, where x = your level+Charisma modifier.
If you whisper it (in character and IRL), then this is negated. This rule is also negated if you are doing something in service of one god against their enemy.
OATHS
An Oath is a binding contract enforced by divine wrath. An Oath can be entered into by one or more parties.
To make an Oath, the participants must loudly state:
- Which god they are binding themselves to.
- What they promise to do.
- What is the penalty for breach.
Then make a sacrifice using the Augury chart above with the following additions:
No sacrifice: Base 10% chance
Conducted by a priest or other officiant: +10% chance
Touching a sacred relic: +20% chance
The referee makes the roll in secret to see if the penalty will in fact occur should any party break the Oath. If a group makes an Oath together, they will all suffer the penalty together.
DESPERATE PRAYERS
A party can attempt a desperate prayer once per session.
The praying character must loudly state:
- What they want from the god/saint/spirit
- What they promise to do if they get it.
The default chance of success is 0%. The intercession will only happen once and in the smallest way possible. The roll is made in secret and at the last possible moment.
If the request is something small that could possibly be explained away by coincidence they get up to +5%
If the promised is something generous they have the capacity to give, they get up to +5%
THREE GODS EVERY ADVENTURER KNOWS
Dokeia, the Antlered Goddess, the Wild Huntress, the Sounder of Horns
Hunting, Wild Places, Being Lost, Paths, Herbs, Beasts, Hounds
Favourite Offerings: A wild rabbit (still alive), amber, mistletoe berries
Rare Offering: the heart of a fawn, willingly given
Augury: the query is carved into a consecrated antler or horn which is then given to the temple dogs to chew. The augury is interpreted from the words left unchewed. Terrible omen: the hounds refuse to chew.
Approves: when you keep what you kill, but especially when the hunter becomes the hunted
Curse: Lycanthrophy.
Komawenteia, the Lion Goddess, She Who Massacres, the Red-Crowned One
War, Lions, Massacres, Bloodshed, Rage, Passion, Art, Poetry, Lust, Beauty
Favourite Offerings: the teeth of a hated foe, artwork, poetry stained with tears of love
Rare Offering: genitals
Augury: the offering is burnt and the ashes mixed with paint. A priest is worked into ecstatic frenzy and paints. Interpreting the painting reveals the augury. Terrible omen: the paint turns to sludge.
Approves: when you act out of passion, but especially when blood is spilled for it
Curse: whenever you are gripped by passion or strong feeling, you must save or slip into a berserk and ecsatic frenzy. You cannot go unconscious while in this frenzy, and feel neither pain nor hunger until it ends.
Mater Theia, the All-Mother, the Embracing, the Guardian of Gates
Death, Rest, Graveyards, Thresholds, Journey's End, the Hearth
Favourite Offerings: doors, food made from an inherited recipe, bone meal of an undead
Rare Offerings: grave-dirt from inside the rib cage of your mother
Augury: the query is written on paper, which is ground into soil mulch. A flower is planted in this soil. When it blooms, the number of petals reveals the augury. Terrible omen: the flower withers.
Approves: when you undertake a journey, but especially when you are unsure of the destination
Curse: whenever you see a door you have never gone through before you must save or suffer terrible pain until you pass through it. Doors unlock (but do not become untrapped) at your touch.
AND THREE SAINTS
All the Saints have the same augury process: fast and pray for a night and day and then until you pass out from exhaustion. When you awake, the augury will have granted to you. Being driven from the church, or failing to fast and pray for the full night and day are the terrible omen.
Saint Alypius the Gambler
Patron saint of gamblers, singers, treasure-hunters, and runaways
Favourite offerings: gold won in gambling, boots a long way from home, candles that have lit up a dungeon
Rare offerings: large treasure, claimed from a heathen hoard
Approves: when you take gold from nonbelievers by wit and guile, but especially when you give credit loudly to the Divine Daughter
Curse: Once per session the Referee may demand you re-roll a die. If ever you roll a total result of 1, increase it to 2.
Saint Vertranis the Judge
Patron saint of bounty-hunters, judges, executioners, and librarians
Favourite offerings: finger bones of the guilty, silver chains, ink
Rare offering: a book of laws
Approves: when you make a record of events, but especially of punishments
Curse: whenever you meet someone new you must save or confess to the last crime you saw committed. You have advantage on saves against mind-affecting magic.
Saint Placidia the Excoriator
Patron saint of demon hunters, exorcists, and forced conversion
Favourite offerings: garlic, quicksilver, and human effigies
Rare offering: Rock chipped from a menhir or stone circle
Approves: when you defend the faith, but especially against the supernatural
Curse: you recoil from holy images and sacred places. You can smell when demons or their servants are nearby
THE REST OF THE GODS
Iphemedeia, Goddess of the Moon, She Of Soft Wings and Sharp Talons
Mysteries, Revenge, Secrets, Prophecy
Diwia, the Changer of Seasons, the Giver and the Taker
Seasons, Change, Authority, Farming, Marriage
Dipsiol, the Two Who Are One, the Blood-Drinker, the Life-Giver
Alchohol, Birth, Murder, Medicine, Gender and Sexuality
Trisheros, the Triple-King, the Dragon-Slayer
Conquest, Punishment, Competition, Self-Improvement, Knighthood
Marineus, God of Time, Lord of Archers
Entrophy, Time, Archers, Erosion, Destruction, Deserts
Despotas, the Law-Giver
Order, Laws, Hierarchy, Writing, Memory, Money
Enesidaon, God of Fire and Storms, Shaker of the Earth
Deep Places, Volcanoes, Earthquakes, Caves, Storms, Keeper of the Dead
Diktaios, God of the Night Sky, the Walker in Dreams
Stars, Architects, Mathematics, Libraries, Maps, Navigation, Dreams
Posidaeia, Queen of Horses, She Who Treads on the Sea
The Sea, Winter, Peace, Tradition, Pain, Sleep, Horses
Drimios, the First Teacher, God of the Wheel
Magic, Teaching, Roads, the Wheel, Song, Lucky and Fortune
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