013 - Anti-Prophecy

Every action, every occurrence, is the death of a possibility. Stretching forwards, backwards and sideways in time these dead possibilities are neatly rolled up and tucked under the cosmic rug by natural quantum processes so as not to get in the way of the parts of the universe you and I live in. If you know where and how to look you can pick through these discarded timelines and while they’ll never happen you might learn a thing or two.

Ritual: Anti-Prophecy

Cost: 3 minor charges.

Ritual Action: Consume something that is reputed to be hallucinogenic but isn’t (Absinthe is pretty popular. Licking poisonous toads, less so) to the point of considerable impairment. If you’re not sure whether your state counts as considerable impairment keep going. Then perform a recognisable practice of fortune telling for a willing and credulous witness. Palmistry, tarot reading, I Ching, haruspicy, an origami cootie catcher, anything with a pedigree works. Perform it accurately as per the tradition but deliberately get any predictions wrong. You must have not used that type of fortune telling with this ritual before.

Effect: You pass out, it might be briefly nodding off or you might fall down and have a seizure depending on what alleged hallucinogen you’ve messed yourself up on and how badly. While unconscious you experience a vision of one of the following regarding the events predicted depending on your roll:

Fumble: You get fixated on non-futures that are absurd: neon-coloured lobster people in suits, people using books like guns, everyone replaced by duplicates of your mother. Yet somehow, at some point, this all could have happened. Take an Unnatural check (rank 4-6) for having your nose rubbed in the absurdity of all once possible futures.

Matched Failure: You see a non-future where things go your way, too bad it’ll never happen like that. The GM gets a hunch roll they may use at any time relevant to the predicted non-future to oppose your actions.

Failure: No vision for you. The only prediction you can make about your future is the hangover.

Success: You see a potential non-future that is close to the real one. The GM gives you a description and you get the result as a hunch on your next roll relevant to this future.

Matched Success: As Success but with more details. The GM gives you one specific piece of useful information learned from observing this future (like a keypad code or connection between two people you were unaware of). Additionally the hunch roll can be banked and used at your discretion until the predicted events are over.

Crit: Causality doesn’t always work in one direction and you’ve chanced upon an instance in which the future knowledge from this ritual that shifted this discarded timeline away from the spotlight and you know it. As Matched Success however at some point during the course of events you may make one alteration based on the fact that you saw things coming and prepared accordingly (“I reach into the sewer grate and pull out the spare set of car keys I planted knowing my others would be stolen”). GM has final veto.