The High Priestess
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Sitting between yin and yang, black and white, the spiritual and the real, masculine and feminine, and two huge-ass pillars is the High Priestess. She does, however, lean decidedly on the side of the feminine, as you might notice that she is dressed as a [REDACTED]2.
The interpretation of female anatomy as sacred, mysterious, and utterly beyond the realm of understanding doesn’t speak well of the sexual prowess of mystics.
Here’s a fun fact about the Tarot deck: it used to be regular old playing cards, for a game played primarily by Catholics, so instead of symbols from esoteric Jewish mysticism, it was mostly stuff like “The Pope” and “The Popess”. The High Priestess used to be “The Popess”, which is to say, the lady Pope. Now, you might think, “every Pope ever to Pope has been a man, what do you mean lady Pope?”
I have good news for you: there was one, at least, apocryphally. It probably didn’t actually happen, but the story of Pope Joan, the woman who pretended to be a man long enough to score the role of Pope for 2 full years — until she ruined it by getting pregnant — has been a popular and enduring one. To this day, in order to prevent this from happening, every new Pope is punched in the stomach on Pope inauguration day3.
Friends & Foes
a Cryptic Oracle, able to parse the weave of prophecy but not terribly clear or helpful about its meaning.
an Anonymous Informant, providing helpful hints and clues from inside a larger organization while remaining safely out of sight.
a Small Town Fortuneteller, who uses any method of augury they can get their hands on — tea leaves, chicken bones, that little thing you make out of paper and fold in your hands — and who is right more often than not.
a Large Medium, who, despite their impressive heft, manages to serve as a bridge4 between the world of living and the world of the dead.
a Cursed Weatherman, who has, not once, not a single time in his entire life, managed to correctly predict tomorrow’s weather.
a Cult Leader bent on bringing the dark prophecy to fruition and finally summoning something deep and ancient and hungry.
a Mad Doomsayer, covered head-to-toe in seemingly schizophrenic scrawlings, who is keeping close track of how much time that everybody has left until the grand apocalypse. It is not much time.
a Clairvoyant Assassin who manages to always stay one step ahead of their targets.
Hooks
The prophecy makes it very clear that this particular young child will be responsible for the destruction of the city, and not long from now.
A terribly unlucky person needs help on their quest to find out what they did to ruin their luck and if they can fix it.
A medium needs your players to help conclude all of the unfinished business of their dead client, so that they might finally rest.
Locations
The Orrery is a pretty accurate and very large model of the solar system. It’s got the big flat disc, it’s got the four elephants, it’s got the big turtle — everything one might need to predict the locations of the stars.
The Ritual Circle is prepped and ready for something big to go down. Totems. Sigils. A whole mess of weirdly shaped rocks.
The Temple in an Unlikely Location is formed when worshipers find a particularly large or unwieldy holy site or sacred object, leaving them no other option than to set up shop near to or inside of it.
Most people don’t like to go into the Forest With Roughshod Hand-Carved Totems at night5 — the trees are crooked, visibility is poor, and people keep disappearing.
The only thing worse than that is the House Filled With Creepy Dolls. Under no circumstances should you spend time in a House Filled With Creepy Dolls6.
Treasures
A Magic Eight Ball that actually turns out to be accurate, almost all of the time.
A Ouija™ Board that can communicate with spirits.
A Crystal Ball that can instantly allow its operator to see7 something far, far away.
Names
Cassandra, Sibyl, Delphi, Ellison, Pythia, Dione, Lyco, Orphe, Apollo, Professor Essy, Nostra, Damus, Virgo, Pisces, Aquarius, Bartles, Jaymes, Boaz, Jachin, Joan, Marty