Divination IV: Divining Felltower

Wrapping up my Divination posts into a Felltower-specific post today.


The Divinations of Felltower

There are, or where, some known aids to divination within Felltower:

The Crystal Ball Room

First discovered back in session 45, the crystal ball room seems to allow users to scry around the dungeon.

The Mercury Pool

Destroyed out of greed, the mercury pool was useful for the Crystal-Gazing spell but also allowed for remote spellcasting to a degree.

The Dream Pool

A pool that gives prophetic dreams if it is able to put you to sleep when you drink from it. So far, no one was actually allowed it to fully runs its course, but they have gotten some tantalizing hints of treasure.

Offhand I can't think of any other scrying/prophetic places the PCs have found yet.

Paying for Divination

While getting your fortune told is a long tradition in fantasy stories, I'm not as big of a fan of it in my own games. Mostly because it is either criminally underused - I have rules but no takers - or criminally overused - I have people who toss money at "let's get everyone a divination every time!"

The former is a waste.

The latter is just annoying, and as a GM I'm more likely to be vague and non-specific with predictions simply because the questions are usually so vague and non-specific. Or so overly-specific that I can't really do much with them.

Also, it generally will be done at the last moment, in town, right as the players are getting ready to get adventuring. So I need to decide on answers on the fly, consult my books to ensure I'm resolving it correctly, and check my maps and Felltower file to see what hints I can provide. It feels derailing, at that point. Because it's a quick method, I can't even waive it away with "hiring a sage takes time, and the research takes time, too."

Because of this, I'm reluctant to rule either way on divinations done in town.

I'm absolutely in favor of PCs using them in the dungeon, on game time, for specific purposes.

And for what it's worth, I don't allow purchasing scrolls of divination spells. It's not just a series of chanted words, it's a body of knowledge and a whole ritual. It doesn't come in spellstones or paper format.