The Strange Bestiary
The Oracle has the power of precognition and transformation. When she sings her predictions to petitioners, she appears as a 30-foot (9 m) long serpent. She can also appear as a woman with dark skin, eyes, and hair, with a secretive smile. But when she returns to her home recursion of Ruk, she usually sports her battle chrysalid form, which is a power-armored hybrid between her human and serpent shape.
The Oracle’s precognitive power is real, and it somehow transcends the law of whatever recursion she occupies, whether it’s Ardeyn, Ruk, or Earth. She has never revealed what her name was before she rose to the office of Oracle in Ardeyn, because she doesn’t remember herself. When the power of foreseeing came upon her, the many futures that bubbled behind her eyes were too much, and she lost a lot of her own history before she managed to gain some measure of control over the talent. When she travels, as she does often, she searches for the secrets of her past that her own power refuses to divulge.
Motive: Predict the future, rediscover her own past
Environment (the Strange): Usually in Telenbar in the Green Wilds of Ardeyn, but potentially anywhere
Health: 21
Damage Inflicted: Moderate wound (7 points)
Armor: 2 in human form; 3 in Ardeyn serpent form; 4 in Ruk battle chrysalid form
Movement: Short
Modifications: Speed defense as level 8 due to precognition; Ardeyn and Ruk lore as level 8.
Combat: In her serpent form, she can make a bite melee attack. In her battle chrysalid form, she can use a melee weapon or fire a ranged weapon at a target within long range. And at the same time in either of those forms, she can bash a separate foe in melee; if she hits, the foe is entangled in her serpentine coils until it succeeds on a Might-based task to break free. Each round the foe remains entangled, it automatically takes damage on the Oracle’s turn.
In any form, including human, the Oracle can look into the future or the past and discern a secret related to a character. If she whispers the secret o the PC, the revelation is so shocking that he must make an Intellect defense roll. On a failure, he suffers 5 points of Intellect damage (ignores Armor); on a success, he still takes 1 point of Intellect damage.
Depending on the recursion she occupies, the Oracle can take different shapes as an action.
Interaction: In nearly any conversation, the Oracle comes across as a little sad and wistful. She normally answers questions about the future only in return for a gift of some sort. Use: If the PCs are looking for the answer to a puzzle, the secret to getting on the good side of a particular power, or any other esoteric information, the Oracle isn’t a bad place to start.
Loot: The Oracle has one or two cyphers and at least one artifact, plus other gear for traveling and adventuring.
The Oracle isn’t likely to engage in physical combat unless she feels she has no choice. Although her ability to see forward is by no means infallible, often she can be found only when she wants to be.
GM Intrusion: The Oracle peers into a character’s future and then attacks the PC. The difficulty of defending against the attack is increased by two steps. Regardless of whether the attack hit, if the character is standing near a precipice or another dangerous area, she must succeed on an Intellect defense roll to avoid stepping over the edge or into the area.