Reads the Shape of What Is Coming
You see forward. Not always clearly, not always in ways that make sense in advance, but the shape of what is coming exists in the world before it arrives — in patterns of event, in the weight of what is overdue, in signs that accumulate meaning in retrospect — and you have learned to read it. The question is never whether something is coming. The question is whether the reading is clear enough to be useful, and whether knowing changes anything.
The channel does not close. Signs arrive whether you look for them or not. You have learned to distinguish signal from noise, mostly, which is to say that the misreadings that remain are the interesting kind: the ones that were accurate and whose accuracy you failed to understand in time.
Connection: Choose one of the following.
- Pick one other PC. You have seen something that involves them directly and have not told them yet. Whether to tell them, and how much, is an ongoing question.
- Pick one other PC. They were present when a reading you gave proved correct in a way neither of you expected. They have treated your word differently since.
- Pick one other PC. You have deliberately avoided reading anything connected to them. You have not told them why.
- Pick one other PC. Something they carry obscures your readings in their immediate vicinity. When they are within short range, your divination tasks are hindered.
Additional Equipment: Your primary divination instrument: a set of cards, a collection of bones or stones, a mirror, a specific text, an astrolabe, or another tool suited to your particular reading practice.
GM Intrusion: The reading was accurate but your interpretation was wrong. You see something you cannot un-see. Acting on foreknowledge changes what was foreseen. A vision arrives during a crisis and will not wait.
Geas: What you see, you carry. You cannot suppress the channel: significant signs arrive unsolicited, and the GM may present visions or impressions at any point without warning. You are also bound to give a true reading when sincerely asked by someone with genuine need — the obligation is structural, not sentimental. You have an inability on tasks involving actively suppressing or dismissing a reading that is already coming through.
Minor Effect Suggestion: The reading reveals one additional detail you did not ask for — something that will matter more than what you sought.
Major Effect Suggestion: The reading is so clear it functions as preparation: you gain an asset to the next task directly related to the foreseen event, valid for 24 hours.
Tier 1
Read the Signs (2 Intellect points): You spend one minute attending to your divination method and ask a question about the likely shape of a coming event or situation. The GM gives you a true but impressionistic answer — not a certainty, but the direction things are tending if nothing changes. More specific or longer-range questions require a successful Intellect task (difficulty set by the GM). Action.
Pattern Sense: You notice the shape of things before they complete. You are trained in tasks involving identifying when a situation is about to shift, detecting hidden connections between apparently unrelated events, and recognising when circumstances have been deliberately staged to appear coincidental. Enabler.
Weight of the Overdue: Some things are simply coming, and you feel their approach before they arrive. You always know, in general terms, whether the GM has a complication or significant event pending for the current scene or location; the GM confirms whether something is imminent without specifying what it is. Enabler.
Tier 2
Read a Person (2 Intellect points): You spend a minute in observation of a specific creature you can see and ask the GM one question about that creature’s recent past or likely immediate future. The information arrives filtered through your reading method, and the GM answers as accurately as a difficulty 3 Intellect task warrants. Action.
Tier 3
Ability Choice. Choose either Clear Reading or Far Sight as your tier 3 ability.
Clear Reading: Your readings have become more precise. When you use Read the Signs or Read a Person, you may ask one follow-up question about the answer you received at no additional cost. The GM answers at one difficulty step lower than the original question would require. Enabler.
Far Sight (3 Intellect points): You extend your reading to cover a location you have visited before, however distant, or a person you know well but cannot currently see. The reading functions as Read the Signs but applies to that location or person rather than your immediate situation. Action.
Tier 4
Read the Room’s History (3 Intellect points): You read the residue of past events in any space you occupy. Ask the GM three specific questions about what has occurred in this location within the past month. The GM answers as accurately as the evidence and a difficulty 4 Intellect task allow. Repeated questions about the same location within a day yield diminishing returns at the GM’s discretion. Action.
Tier 5
Weight of Certainty: Your readings have developed from impression toward knowledge. When you use Read the Signs, you may ask for a specific piece of information rather than an impressionistic direction; the GM answers as directly as the available information permits. Enabler.
Tier 6
Ability Choice. Choose either Rewrite the Reading or The Long View as your tier 6 ability.
Rewrite the Reading (6 Intellect points): Once per day, you attempt to alter the outcome of an event you have foreseen. You spend the points and describe the specific change you intend; the GM determines whether the intervention succeeds and what it costs. The cost is always something real, because what is coming does not simply stop when redirected. Action.
The Long View: Your readings now extend to the broad shape of events weeks or months distant. When you use Read the Signs, you may extend the timeframe to any duration that makes sense for the question, and you gain an asset to all tasks related to preparing for, preventing, or enabling foreseen events. Enabler.