InAWickedToronto:Annotated Oracle

The Oracle, with annotations for the Indie RPG Group

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This list of elements is copyrighted by Vincent Baker. The original version is available as part of Mr. Baker's Cheap and Cheesy Fantasy Game or in an online version hosted by CRN Games. A more recent version, based on cards and separated into four separate oracles, which is presented here, can be found atVincent Baker's anyway blog, an automated version of which is available.

This annotated version contains new elements generated in play by our group, and also links elements that have shown up with their matching masteries, characters, or other information. It also maintains the elements not included in the new four oracle system at the bottom for availability as choices to We Owe persons.

Blood and Sex

1 ♦ A mysterious star-lit revel on a high bare hilltop.

2 ♦ A woman suddenly bereft of love and family, daughter to a long heritage of sorceresses and poisoners.

3 ♦ A raving prophet, advocating self-mortification and deprivation of the appetites.

• Selected by Steve for Chapter 3
• Created Althea the Pure

4 ♦ A practitioner of law, with her several secretaries.

5 ♦ A chattel slave who has broken both his bonds and his master's skull.

6 ♦ A practitioner of luck-magics traveling ahead of a ferocious storm.

7 ♦ The much-contested wedding of the province's great beauty.

8 ♦ Some great wizard's magical messenger, brass-skinned.

9 ♦ The secluded home of an exiled court-wizard.

10 ♦ A note written in an elegant hand, sweetly perfumed.

J ♦ A band of demons, laughing and malicious, authors of debauched sensuality and corrupt appetites.

Q ♦ A happy girl, promised in marriage to a gentleman, naive to the danger he represents.

K ♦ A company of desert horsemen, hiding a woman amongst them.

1 ♥ A farm manor, peaceful and prosperous.

2 ♥ The ascension to mastery of a student wizardess, unrecognized by her order but absolutely clear and undeniable to her inner self.

3 ♥ The sorcerously animate homunculus of a wizard, more clever than wise, recently dead.

4 ♥ The night each year that a certain ghost is allowed her freedom.

5 ♥ A deer-path through towering woods to a still pond.

6 ♥ The alliance by marriage of a certain tyrant's family with the cult of a certain desert god.

7 ♥ A spirit of the wilds, mercurial in form, sister to gazelles.

8 ♥ The local lord's daughter, tramping after strawberries.

9 ♥ A wandering exorcist, severe, who accepts no payment for his services but who lusts after carnal congress.

10 ♥ The child of a great and renowned theologist, forced into priesthood against both inclination and nature.

J ♥ An altar overflowing with flowers and bowls of honey.

Q ♥ The rehearsal of the funeral of the city's aged and beloved mayor.

K ♥ A young warrior, initiate into a warrior cult, brother to lions.

1 ♣ A spirit of the lower air, caught up in joyous human celebration.

2 ♣ A monastery and its associated shrines, each to its own god.

3 ♣ The arrival at a way house of four unusual travelers.

4 ♣ The graduation of an apprentice to mastery.

5 ♣ A raving prophet, preaching the transience of life and advocating a full indulgence of every appetite.

6 ♣ A small group of mothers, led by a midwife, fighting to protect their children from demons of illness.

7 ♣ The seventh wife of a tyrant king, carrying his chief huntsman's child.

8 ♣ A band of goat herders, armed, outraged by an injustice visited upon their clan.

9 ♣ A young girl, inexperienced but astute and a canny judge of character.

10 ♣ The marriage of a region's most beautiful girl, necessarily virgin and without blemish, to the dead stone effigy of a harvest god.

J ♣ The death of the primary heir of a local noblewoman.

Q ♣ The seizure of arcane powers by an arrogant and brutal wizard.

K ♣ A bandit captain, in hiding, with her trusted bodyguard.

1 ♠ A field of herbs and wild flowers, alive with bees, where a certain half-bestial creature brings his many lovers.

2 ♠ The celebration of local fertility or harvest rites.

3 ♠ A camp-wanton, pretty and pliant, prone to drink.

• Used in Chapter 2
• Created Bambi Woods

4 ♠ A siren-ghoul, who entices the amorous into deadly peril.

5 ♠ A famous traveling exorcist and his entourage, with as canny an eye for a village's wealth as for its demons.

6 ♠ An oasis of sweet water in a barren wilderness, haunted by the shadows of some vast atrocity committed centuries ago.

7 ♠ A slayer of monsters, heralded and lauded.

8 ♠ A simple insult, casually inflicted, striking very, very deep.

9 ♠ The deathbed curse of a betrayed queen.

10 ♠ A wandering spirit, visible at will, an inflamer of human passions.

J ♠ A priestess of a merciful temple of healers, on pilgrimage to the birthplace of her order.

Q ♠ A warrior-priestess of a truly bloodthirsty cult.

K ♠ A jealous and vengeful rival, who is an infamous dueler.

God Kings of War

1 ♦ The human servant of a mighty and unspeakable demiurge.

2 ♦ A cask of honey wine, tribute to a fierce bandit-queen.

• Selected by Hans for Chapter 2
• Created Artemis

3 ♦ A war-sorceress, slender but commanding, with golden hair.

4 ♦ The arrival of a hundred fearsome warships on an unprepared, prosperous, peaceful coast.

5 ♦ The arrival of unexpected and improbable allies.

• Used in Chapter 1
• Created Captain "Half-cocked" Jack Amerigo
• Created Dominic

6 ♦ The self-important master of strategy to a great general.

7 ♦ The site of a pitched battle, ground churned and stinking.

8 ♦ An order of magician-monks who punish blasphemers.

9 ♦ A much-decorated company of the enemy's light cavalry.

10 ♦ The country fort, made mostly of mud bricks, of a local warlord.

J ♦ A vengeful and jealous god, displeased by the lapses of his followers, however scrupulously they observe.

Q ♦ An executioner, a strangler, in service to a ruthless king.

K ♦ A chest containing the tax monies of a rural province.

1 ♥ A secret order of warrior-mystics, defending their relics.

2 ♥ An old, proud fortress on an important mountain pass.

3 ♥ An unspeakable demon of atrocity and rage, bound in chains for a thousand years, aware suddenly of a minute loosening of his bonds.

4 ♥ A token indicating that its bearer speaks for the high general.

5 ♥ A great army's marching orders, passwords, and signals.

6 ♥ A speaker for the ancestors, carrying secrets and warnings.

7 ♥ A demon of rage and avarice, secret power behind a great tyrant's rule.

8 ♥ A day sacred to an oppressed slave cult, the celebration of which is punishable by torture.

9 ♥ A terrible and devastating ambush.

10 ♥ A tender of war-bulls, shaved-headed and fearless.

J ♥ The head of a high war-captain, in a carved wooden cask.

Q ♥ A warrior-woman, queen of her small wild tribe, hard-pressed by advancing civilization.

K ♥ The ghost of a tyrant king, strangled by his own daughter.

1 ♣ A local warlord's ancestral sword, much honored.

2 ♣ An army's scryer, commanding six sharp-fanged gaunts.

3 ♣ A bitter and unseasonable cold, caused by warring elementals.

4 ♣ A hard-won victory, with many dead on both sides.

5 ♣ A soldier's plain shortsword, gradually developing a taste for the blood of women.

6 ♣ A brutish and tyrannical warlord and his uncouth thugs.

7 ♣ A sword held in great esteem by a certain warrior lineage, drawn now for the first time in three lifetimes.

8 ♣ A high, many-towered wall on a fierce border.

9 ♣ A demon-god of blood and vengeance, forgotten since antiquity, recently awakened.

10 ♣ A youth or maiden, the reincarnation of a great hero, whose soul remembers glory.

J ♣ A powerful general's death of her wounds, which will shatter her army into factions.

Q ♣ An altar to devils of the waste, stinking with gore.

K ♣ An outlying watchtower on a wooded hill.

• Used in Chapter 1

1 ♠ The very first time that a certain young soldier, impressed against his choice and wanting nothing more than to return to his home, has killed.

2 ♠ A captured war-horse with a taste for human meat.

3 ♠ A warrior overcome with the weight of his weapons and the smell of gore.

4 ♠ A summoner of illusions and diversions, mild and of good humor, but gullible.

5 ♠ A great warship, set with ram and mangonel.

6 ♠ A flock of hunterbirds, sharp-beaked, clever, and dreadful.

7 ♠ The guardian spirit of a foolhardy, naive, reckless and impressionable young person.

8 ♠ A prodigy-mage, still a maid, drunk with occult power.

9 ♠ A genius of flame, imprisoned within a brass mirror.

10 ♠ The mutiny and revolt of a prestigious cavalry company.

J ♠ A fortress guarding the only pass through treacherous mountains, overseen by a corrupt and voracious war-captian.

Q ♠ The campsite of a traveling army, not long deserted.

K ♠ An enemy champion, fearless and bellowing.

The Unquiet Past

1 ♦ The boasting chief of a team of rock-quarriers.

2 ♦ The passage of a ghostly army, dragging their slain and injured.

3 ♦ The captain of a foreign troop, sent to collect tribute.

4 ♦ The soul of a dead wizard, seeking an advantageous rebirth.

• Used in Chapter 4
• Created Felthantis Fantastik

5 ♦ A gutted tower, home to many birds.

6 ♦ A youth or maiden, the reincarnation of an ancient sage, remembering uncanny arts but forgetful of safeguards.

7 ♦ An apothecary, squint-eyed, with many uncanny potions.

8 ♦ A long-dead queen, still trying to defend her realm.

9 ♦ A camp physician, her pockets full of salves and drugs.

10 ♦ The young, beautiful wife of an old man whom the gods have touched.

J ♦ A murderer-for-hire, luckless and in poverty, from whom the gods have turned their faces.

Q ♦ The fey and unfriendly guardians of an enchanted glade.

K ♦ The exposure by erosion of a long-buried door.

• Used in Chapter 4

1 ♥ A girl with the soul of a leopard, born inappropriately into a human body.

2 ♥ A serpent-demoness, malicious and venomous, seeking vengeance.

3 ♥ The guardian of a tomb, a statue cast in silver with ruby eyes.

4 ♥ An ambitious petty-wizard, quick to take offense.

5 ♥ The awakening of three powerful and malignant genii.

6 ♥ The bloodthirsty ghosts of those drowned in an accursed water.

7 ♥ A fallen temple, overgrown with moss and ivies.

8 ♥ The son of a great tyrant, born crippled and denied his inheritance.

9 ♥ The wetnurse of an austere scholar's adopted child.

10 ♥ The meeting by chance of old enemies, one less forgetful than the other.

J ♥ A hermit priestess, practicing obscure deprivations.

Q ♥ A reader of omens and caster of auguries, with grim news.

K ♥ The arrival of honored emissaries from a wealthy, exotic land.

1 ♣ A waystation on a broad road, with a campsite and shrine.

2 ♣ A scholar and antiquarian, unmindful of danger.

3 ♣ The secret central shrine of a temple to forgotten gods.

4 ♣ A new village built on the ruins of a forgotten people.

5 ♣ A place where warring demons have left the earth churned, upthrust, and charged with occult forces.

6 ♣ The burglary of a magical order's innermost library.

7 ♣ A ruthless bully of an under-officer with high ambitions.

8 ♣ The father of a child possessed by a voracious spirit.

9 ♣ An unsavory treasure-seeker, with an honest map.

10 ♣ A trainer of apes, bereft, mourning the death of his dearest performer.

J ♣ A small room under the foundation, its doorway bricked shut, the prison of a dreadful and malicious spirit.

Q ♣ A wandering intelligence, intent on driving mortals mad.

K ♣ A treasure seeker, following the whispers of a slave spirit.

1 ♠ A slow-moving caravan with many wagons and travelers.

2 ♠ A necromancer who steals the knowledge of the dying.

3 ♠ A rough wolf-hunter, surly, filthy, and crude.

4 ♠ A market on the crossroads, full of sound and color.

5 ♠ A cruel and powerful young lordling.

6 ♠ The convocation of a ruins' ghouls, gaunts, and wisps.

7 ♠ Instruments of torture, haunted by their long-dead victims.

• Used in Chapter 4

8 ♠ A fearsome storm, with thunder and driving winds.

• Used in Chapter 2

9 ♠ The opening by sorcery of an ancient door, set in the earth over the crypts of some forgotten convent or monestary, until now sealed with potent spells.

10 ♠ An ancient stone way marker, indicating an overgrown road.

J ♠ A knowledge-mad sorceress, delving into ancient secrets.

Q ♠ A golden armlet, still on the skeletal arm of its owner.

K ♠ A wealthy merchant's son, refined and crafty.

The Nest of Vipers

1 ♦ A great convocation of mages, with many orders attending.

2 ♦ A midwife, weary and appalled, having delivered a tenth consecutive stillbirth.

3 ♦ The celebration of a day sacred to the city's chief cult.

4 ♦ The proprietress of a wanton-house, with her manservant.

5 ♦ The solemnization of treaty between two neighboring principalities, negotiated in the face of brutality and assassination, brave and hopeful but quite doomed.

6 ♦ The murder by strangling of an officer of the city watch.

7 ♦ A public bathing house in a wealthy city, of very good quality, where only the most refined and modish vices are permitted.

• Used in Chapter 3

8 ♦ A ghoulish eater of dead flesh, driven by unusual lusts.

9 ♦ The corpse of a lord's hunting hound, caught in a rose-briar.

10 ♦ The written deed to a certain house, affirmed and sealed.

J ♦ A wayhouse in which plague-victims have recently stayed.

Q ♦ A poor home shared by many families of beggars.

K ♦ A wealthy merchant-priest with much political clout.

1 ♥ A vicious gang of cutthroats and alley-thieves.

2 ♥ A conjurer who needs blood to entice his uncouth spirits.

3 ♥ An imbiber of sorcerous drugs, seeking congress with demons.

4 ♥ A fallen-in mansion, where by night ghosts and devils meet.

• Used in Chapter 3
• Created Garrett

5 ♥ The college of a small but prestigious magical order.

6 ♥ A tower of silver and alabaster, which rises from the sea under the new moon.

7 ♥ A squat town on the banks of a wide, long river, rich from plunder, whose men raid up and down the river in their ugly boats.

8 ♥ A decrier of the gods as false, unworthy of our attention, and his learned detractors, in heated dispute.

9 ♥ A young widower, raging, whose beautiful wife was murdered by sorcery by a romantic rival.

10 ♥ A wizard jealously guarding her magical territory.

J ♥ The burglary of the storehouse of a powerful robber-merchant.

Q ♥ The return of a reclusive enchantress to her home.

• Used in Chapter 2
• Created Countess Ashbet

K ♥ A night-wisp, who devours its victims' magical potency.

1 ♣ A jaded gladiator, murderer of both enemies and friends.

2 ♣ An ambitious farmer, hungry for gossip or silver.

3 ♣ A slight and subtle demon, child of blasphemy, craving mischief.

4 ♣ The unwitting husband of a serpent-demoness.

5 ♣ The young mother of a baby prince, whose husband the king has been overthrown and put to death.

• Used in Chapter 3
• Used in Chapter 4
• Created Zalmor the Proud/Absolom

6 ♣ A baby's birth, heralded by prophets, written of in antique books, forseen by the wise.

7 ♣ A noble house's signatory ring, left behind in a street brawl.

8 ♣ A tempter devil, fond of luxury and sin, respecter of no law and every appetite, imprisoned until this very hour and minute within a stone crypt behind an old monk's garden.

9 ♣ An underground chamber, eerie with blue-green lights.

10 ♣ A devil of the lower air, malicious and full of pranks.

J ♣ The ghost of a suicide, a person overcome by guilt and shame, who finds in death no release.

Q ♣ The warden ghost of the place, generous to the good-willed.

K ♣ A troupe of musicians for hire, one of whom is a burglar and cutpurse.

1 ♠ The daughter of an emperor, denied nothing, prey to fleeting whims, craving discipline.

2 ♠ The unscrupulous landlady of a roadside wayhouse.

3 ♠ A precocious child disputing with philosophers and declaimers.

4 ♠ One mistakenly condemned, fled into hiding.

5 ♠ The private garden of a noble house.

6 ♠ An innkeeper who murders and robs his wealthy guests.

7 ♠ A fur-trapper, simple but good-natured, and his daughter.

8 ♠ A warehouse on the docks, full of stolen silk.

9 ♠ A band of slavers both bold and incorrigible.

10 ♠ A court dandy, casually cruel, exiled from the presence of the prince for a petty slight.

J ♠ The flight of a prince and his forbidden lover into hiding.

Q ♠ A conjurer possessed by spirits of uncivil character.

K ♠ A village executioner, practicing his trade on a caught burglar.

Extra elements

Items

A key on a broken chain, lost by the roadside.

• Used in Chapter 1

A purse of coins, cursed by its stabbed and dying owner.

The fine silk wardrobe of one dead of some plague.

The book of scripture of an order of warrior-monks.

A farmer's good-luck piece, the author of his prosperity.

Silk slippers which make their wearer invisible.

A copper basin, to which are enslaved spirits of the air.

Bracelets which grant their wearer improbable strength.

A glass jar of ferocious and deadly magical wasps.

A staff of white-wood, summoner of lightnings.

A silk robe through which no weapon may pass.

A sword consecrated to a fearsome demon of war.

A helm in antique style, sound despite its tarnish.

A book of engraved bronze, partly obscured by wear.

A gorgeous yellow gem, cursed with a terrible doom.

A woman's long blood-red hair, incorporated into a bird's nest.

A bandit's treasure-trove, exposed by erosive rain.

An ancient stone waymarker, indicating an overgrown road.

The remnants of a woodcutter's camp, abandoned in haste.

Characters

An underclerk of the temple of some lesser cult.

A gentlewoman-burglar, stylish and daring.

An underofficer of the local lord's home guard.

• Used in Chapter 1
• Created Lord Seth Darkmantle
• Created Ulysses Amerigo

The local lord's young daughter, tramping after strawberries.

A placid mystic, preaching calm and demonstrating miracles.

The captain of a shattered company, himself injured.

A noble landholder, touring, with court and attendants.

Locations

A rich and mighty temple, full of silver and fine goods.

A warehouse on the docks, full of Elven silk.

The old city wall, long since outgrown.

A roofed bridge on a wide river, with a toll-collector.

A fishing village with an inn of good quality.

A standing stone, obscurely carved, crackling with force.

A pool of mirror-still green water.

An old raised road, cracked and crumbling.

A ruined manor, its keep smashed by a fallen tree.

An ancient monument, eroded and overgrown but standing.

A high, wind-scoured crag, strewn with rubble.

A clearing of mossy boulders by a forest brook.

A boggy field, buzzing with stinging insects.

A vast oak tree in a fallow field.

A high waterfall, riddled behind with caves.

Events

The secret alliance of two noble families against a third.

An unseasonal and destructive flood.

The capture by soldiers of a popular gentleman-bandit.

A conjunction of uncanny forces. +1 to all Magic Rolls.

The capture and interrogation of a cunning spy.

The accidental death of a highly regarded war-captain.

The anniversary of the fall of a mighty tower.

The discovery of an ancient tomb, full of occult treasures.

The awakening of a merciless and tyrranical pit-wyrm.

Threats

A civic-minded merchant with influence in the watch.

An assassin hired by some wealthy enemy.

Field-vipers, wild dogs, loose bulls, and a variety of spiders.

An angry mob of peasants with makeshift weapons.

Six enemy scouts, with spyglasses and longbows.

Ferocious war-hounds, driven wild with blood and confusion.

A jeweled dagger which excites the greed of all who behold it.

A wicked mountain-drake, cunning and greedy.

A pack of winter-starved and desperate wolves.

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