How does a god guide his followers?

[CRGreathouse]

If your DM has a name resembling my handle and your character worships Zerad, get out!

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I'm running a campaign (D&D 3.5 + house rules, but that shouldn't matter much) in which all the PCs come from the same town, which is a cult town of the goddess Zerad (she of the north wind, basically like Boreas from Greek myth). There isn't anything resembling a priesthood as such -- like in Rome the public officials serve that function, but without any special connection to the divine. (They're more like the designated representative of the town to the goddess and vice versa.)

Usually my campaigns are very open-ended: the characters explore the world, accept or reject quests as they see fit, and generally do whatever they want. This anti-railroading is a lot of work as DM but it produces satisfying results for all involved. This time the players wanted to shake things up and do a more traditional campaign where there is a roughly linear plotline and they are guided by their town's patron.

So far this has worked reasonably well, but I'm running out of ways to guide the party. We started with a direct intervention (a Biblically-inspired rescue from the jail), had some vivid dreams, and even a case of the winds directing them in the desired direction. But I'm running out of good ideas. Dreams are fun and allow the appropriate player a 'reveal' moment which is amusing, but I don't want to rely too heavily on them since I don't want Zerad to step too much on the toes of the goddess of dreams.

So, what other ways can I have a divine being communicate, directly or indirectly, with the players? Suppose that they matter enough to merit this, for whatever reason -- for one thing, the scope of the goddess is small.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Are your PCs high enough level to cast divination spells? IMO when a cleric casts a divination spell, they're getting guidance from their own god. Sometimes they'll get extra guidance, or might be told they're straying from their portfolio. Sometimes they'll even a non-game-based message (we called that "Roarmail" in a previous Harry Dresden campaign; my PC was a kind of divine/draconic sorcerer).

Any deity is likely to have spirits or other kinds of immortals to serve it. Even if these immortals are very weak, they can still speak from "beyond". If you're dealing with a god of fire, a minor fire elemental might appear in a fire and deliver a message, as an example. (This probably doesn't fit.)

 

[Gilladian]

Well, there are always omens. The priest of the party (or the PC who is "closest" to the goddess) should begin to sense things - the wind blowing a leaf in the direction they should choose to travel, the whistling wind being louder in one direction, the clouds forming angry colors when they make a bad choice, etc...

Maybe one of the players can literally hear the goddess speak to him or her; not all the time, but at random moments. Maybe it is so loud it deafens him, or causes him to collapse in fits...

And then of course, maybe the goddess falls silent at some critical juncture; they are forced to choose based on their understanding of her will and their capabilities. Of course, they might misjudge...

 

[CRGreathouse]

Are your PCs high enough level to cast divination spells?

No.

Any deity is likely to have spirits or other kinds of immortals to serve it. Even if these immortals are very weak, they can still speak from "beyond". If you're dealing with a god of fire, a minor fire elemental might appear in a fire and deliver a message, as an example. (This probably doesn't fit.)

I like it.

 

[MerricB]

The spirits/immortals serving the deity is a good one, which I've used (very rarely) in my games.

The other part is that a deity can directly contact a follower when they pray for spells. Divination spells are there so that a cleric can force contact with a deity, but there's nothing stopping the deity from directly contacting a cleric (well, your cosmology and mythology might!). So, when the cleric prays for spells in the morning (or whenever), along with the spells they can get some divine inspiration.

Cheers!

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

It's a much higher-level option, but in Piratecat's old campaign, when their PC conjured angels with Planar Binding, they would sometimes stick around after combat and chat. (Even hilariously reminding them that every time he threw up his hands and said "oh god" that his god was actually listening.) At a much lower-level, this is the kind of thing that could crop up if a cleric does a short-term combat summoning. (Celestial creatures have Int 3, and this seems to be enough to talk.)

 

[CRGreathouse]

Well, there are always omens. The priest of the party (or the PC who is "closest" to the goddess) should begin to sense things - the wind blowing a leaf in the direction they should choose to travel, the whistling wind being louder in one direction, the clouds forming angry colors when they make a bad choice, etc...

Maybe one of the players can literally hear the goddess speak to him or her; not all the time, but at random moments. Maybe it is so loud it deafens him, or causes him to collapse in fits...

And then of course, maybe the goddess falls silent at some critical juncture; they are forced to choose based on their understanding of her will and their capabilities. Of course, they might misjudge...

Great ideas. Thanks!

 

[Starfox]

The Greek gods in the Iliad and Odyssey (which you compare to) basically had five ways to communicate with mortals.

* Directly - this is not as rare as you'd think, but is mostly a background event, something that happens to young people in distant locations. The prime example is the Paris and The Apple incident.
* By Dreams - Divinities could enter dreams and speak directly to their favorites. More rarely, the dream showed something that had to be interpreted.
* By agent - the god can send a monster to express it's displeasure.
* By Fate - Is everything going your way? Or does events conspire against you? Do people around you mysteriously disappear, die, or go mad? Chances are you have the eye of some god on you. See the next point for how to deal with this.
* By Oracle - Oracles were both wandering seers and established temples with oracular powers. They can come with pronouncements spontaneously, but most often they are asked for advice. The advice of oracles is always cryptic and often impossible to understand except in hindsight. But if a god wishes you to do penance, they are often clear and direct, acting as mouthpieces of the god. The itinerant seers and stationary attendants at oracular shrines is the closest thing the ancient Greeks had to what we think of as clergy.