How to decipher a prophecy

[Elder-Basilisk]

That's the problem with being a dungeon master instead of God. You don't really know what's going to happen so you can't make comprehensible prophecies about stuff the PCs can effect.

On the other hand, prophecies which are so vague as to be legitimately interpreted in a dozen different (and some mutually exclusive) ways (like Nostradamus, for instance) are rather useless and meaningless. That kind of prophecy would seem to be the hallmark of a charlatan rather than a real oracle or god. The prophecies of the Delphic oracle in Greek myth were somewhat different--you knew exactly what they meant it was just that the actions you took to avoid them inevitably caused them to come to pass (as in the story of Oedipus). A clever DM might be able to manage that in a game (although players might feel railroaded).

A conditional prophecy might be a better way to simulate actual divine interaction with PCs. Examples of this are Moses fortelling the death of every firstborn son in Egypt not in a house marked with the blood of a lamb and Jeremiah prophesying to the men the Babylonians left in Jerusalem that if they fled to Egypt they would die. That's the kind of thing a DM can arrange. . . .

As to the original question, you could always have the prophecy carved into the living bark of the World Tree by giants in letters as deep as a spear. Comprehend Languages on the World Tree! You've got to be kidding. You can't exactly take a rubbing of the letters either. And, as the DM, you could rule that comprehend languages gives knowledge of the writer's intent. Consequently copying the letters onto a paper that could be comprehended wouldn't work (the writer didn't mean anything by it. . . .)

Alternatively, you could let the PCs use their comprehend languages ability but make the prophecy a recording of a vision that doesn't make sense to the PCs (or has many possible interpretations). In order to decipher it, they must seek out a prophet gifted in the interpretation of dreams and visions (such as Joseph or Daniel in the Bible). Or the end of the prophecy could refer include a scribe's commentaries "the meaning of the dragon is clear, having been made manifest in the first of Bede's visions. . . ." That would require the PCs to find the other prophecy in order to properly interpret the one they just found.

Incidentally, though, you can't take 20 on decipher script--you can't even retry it. Either you can figure it out or you can't--more time doesn't help.

I'd frame the prophecy in a suitably vague and nonspecific manner, and let them interpret it however they want. Then manipulate events to make what they think it means, come to pass. Or not.

 

[hong]

That kind of prophecy would seem to be the hallmark of a charlatan rather than a real oracle or god.

If the DM says it's authentic, it's authentic.

 

[LostSoul]

Incidentally, though, you can't take 20 on decipher script--you can't even retry it. Either you can figure it out or you can't--more time doesn't help.

You can't? That's wierd. I imagined a character studying a tome, pouring over its contents for a couple of days, not sure what he's going to come up with until he's finished the entire thing. What's wrong with that?

 

[Conaill]

Of course, feel free to actually read the description of the Comprehend Languages spell yourself:

excerpts from the SRD:
Magical writing cannot be read, other than to know it is magical [...]. This spell can be foiled by certain warding magic (such as the secret page and illusory script spells). It does not decipher codes or reveal messages concealed in otherwise normal text.

Sounds like you have plenty of means available to you to avoid the Comprehend Languages shortcut...

 

[LostSoul]

I did read the spell. I assumed that Read Magic would allow you to read magical writings. Imagine that.

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

I think you have the wrong idea about decipher script. The description you give sounds like someone translating a long passage or book from one language that they understand into another language that they understand. It takes time to do that to a book--perhaps as much time as it took to write the book in the first place.

On the other hand, decipher script is a carryover from the 1e/2e understand language thief ability. It's the ability to piece together the meaning of an inscription in a language you don't understand based on having seen those characters elsewhere and putting two and two together. Kind of like me trying to decipher latin: "Hmm "Fidelis"--I think that means faithfulness (that's the root word for fidelity)--don't understand those two words. "unum" That's one. "From many one", unity and all that. "Deos." I'm pretty sure that's God--we say "Deus ex machina all the time--that means god from the machine and greek is pretty close to latin." So faithfulness blah blah blah one. It's on a tomb in the basement of a church. I think it's an epitath saying that this man was faithful to the One God--which implies that, at the time, some people thought that there was more than one. Oh, "agonistas." That sounds like agony. So, he was probably martyred for his belief in one god. That makes sense."

That's much more of an instinct thing--it's also not likely to get me anything precise enough to understand prophecy or anything else where precision is important.

You can't? That's wierd. I imagined a character studying a tome, pouring over its contents for a couple of days, not sure what he's going to come up with until he's finished the entire thing. What's wrong with that?