d100

Omens & Portents

Signs and superstitions to foreshadow whatever comes next.

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Omens & Portents — 100 entries
d100	Result
1	A crow lands on the signpost, caws twice, and waits to be acknowledged before leaving.
2	This morning's milk had a skin of frost, in high summer.
3	The candle flames all bend the same direction, though the air is still.
4	A ring around the moon, doubled - the old folk stay indoors for the second ring.
5	Every spider in the barn has moved its web to face the road.
6	The spilled salt lies in the shape of an open gate.
7	Two magpies fight over a wedding ring nobody claims.
8	The church weathervane has pointed against the wind since dawn.
9	A newborn calf with a white blaze shaped like a keyhole.
10	All the bees returned to the hive at midday, as if for a funeral.
11	Bootprints in the frost this morning, leaving the graveyard, walking backwards.
12	The well bucket came up with two reflections in it.
13	Dogs howled at moonrise, then stopped all at once, mid-note.
14	The fire spat a coal that rolled to the door and waited there, glowing.
15	A hen crowed at dusk; the rooster has said nothing since.
16	Yesterday's bread, cut open, was hollow.
17	The mirror fell but did not break; the grandmother says this is worse.
18	Seven swans flew east in a straight line, silent, low enough to touch.
19	The baby laughed at the empty corner again, and waved goodbye.
20	Rain fell out of a clear sky for the length of one held breath.
21	The blacksmith's hammer rang a note that made every horse look up.
22	A stranger's initials appeared in the frost on the inside of the window.
23	All the town's clocks are a minute apart, in order, down the street.
24	The cat refuses the warm spot by the fire and sits facing the cellar door.
25	An owl in daylight, watching the market, counting. You are sure it is counting.
26	The river ran clear this morning; you could see too far down.
27	Apples cut crosswise all show six seeds this year. Always six.
28	The old veteran's wound aches, and he has started oiling his shield without being asked.
29	Smoke from every chimney in the village leaned north, into the wind.
30	A child's lost tooth came in silver.
31	The bell rope swayed by itself, gently, as if someone were deciding.
32	All the portraits in the hall are suddenly, subtly, better lit.
33	Moths formed a ring around the lantern and flew in formation, none burning.
34	The dice came up the same number nine times; the gambler went home and kissed his children.
35	First snow fell only on the manor grounds, exactly to the fence line.
36	A wolf was seen at the treeline at noon, sitting like a dog, watching the school.
37	The pond froze overnight with a pattern like a map in the ice.
38	Every candle in the shrine went out except the one for travelers.
39	Fish leapt from the river onto the bank, in order of size.
40	The letters on the old monument are sharper today, as if recut in the night.
41	Bread rose triple and the baker will not sell today's loaves; she is giving them away, quickly.
42	There were two dawns this morning, faint but distinct; the second was better.
43	Ivy on the tower flowered for the first time in living memory: white, then red by noon.
44	A funeral wreath washed ashore, dry.
45	The hunting horn sounded from the forest, in the old pattern, though the old lodge stands empty.
46	Every door in the house was found open at dawn, including the locked ones, including the ones painted shut.
47	The scarecrow's arm has lowered, pointing at the church.
48	The twins spoke the same sentence in their sleep, in a shared dream, and neither will repeat it.
49	Milk poured for the house spirit was gone by morning - the bowl rinsed, dried and returned to the shelf.
50	Lightning struck the gallows hill twice; grass grows there now, in a circle, in winter.
51	A great stag stood in the ford at dawn and did not drink; it only watched the road from the south.
52	The weathercock crowed. It is made of copper. It crowed.
53	All the knives in the kitchen were found pointing east in their drawer.
54	The hearth fire burned blue while the stranger spoke, and none noticed but the youngest.
55	Sunset lasted an hour longer than the almanac allows; the sky went through colors that have no names yet.
56	A coin left on the dead man's eyes was found on his lips at dawn.
57	The mountain wore a cloud like a hood, and the old shepherd took his flock down early.
58	Ants abandoned their hill in one long column, carrying their eggs, heading for high ground. There is no flood. There has never been a flood here.
59	The gravedigger's spade broke on soft earth.
60	The chapel bell tolled once at midnight, and every candle in town guttered on the same beat.
61	New wine turned to vinegar in a night, in every cellar on the street where the judge lives.
62	A white moth landed on the sleeping child's chest, and the grandmother wept for joy - the good omen, the rare one.
63	The stars of the Wagon rose in the wrong order, and the ferryman refuses to work until they apologize.
64	Hoofprints circled the house in the snow, unshod, enormous, always exactly three feet from the wall.
65	The old dog, blind these three years, tracked something across the yard with its eyes.
66	Bread offered to the river sank in still water, straight down, as if taken by a hand.
67	Every rosebush bloomed out of season except the ones planted over the old duel ground.
68	The mirror showed the room correctly, except the door in the reflection stood open.
69	A hawk dropped a fish onto the courthouse steps during the verdict.
70	All the town's babies slept through the night, every one; the midwives find this deeply suspicious.
71	The kettle sang in harmony with itself.
72	Frost drew a gallows on the window of a man who swears he is innocent.
73	Seven crows sat the fence at dawn; when the eighth came, the seven left.
74	The candle burned still during the argument, then went out when peace was made. Backwards, the priest says. All backwards.
75	Sailors' knots came untied overnight on a ship at anchor; the harbormaster has quietly doubled the watch.
76	Rain wrote runnels in the dust in perfect script - the schoolmaster copied it before it dried and has not slept since.
77	The forge fire showed a face for as long as it takes to say a name, and the smith said one.
78	Every horse in the stable faced the same corner at midnight, calm, ears forward, listening politely.
79	A rainbow ended, visibly and locally, on the pauper's field. By noon, three lords' surveyors were there with chains and flags.
80	The inn's mother-dough doubled overnight and smells of honey; the cook has locked it in a cupboard 'until it explains itself'.
81	Thunder in a snowfall - the shepherds call it 'the argument upstairs' and will not name a price for anything today.
82	The chandler's candles all burn with two flames today; she sells them at triple price to fools and at cost to friends.
83	A ring of mushrooms enclosed the well overnight. The oldest resident has begun speaking politely near it, in case.
84	Every string instrument in town is in perfect tune this morning. The luthier sat down on his step and put his head in his hands.
85	The sun rose the color of brass, and the birds waited a full minute before starting.
86	A drowned man's boots washed ashore, standing upright, side by side, facing inland.
87	Cobwebs on the shrine this morning spelled a word in the old alphabet: 'SOON'.
88	All the milk in the village turned faintly sweet, and the cheesemaker, tasting it, quietly began to cry and would not say if it was grief.
89	A black ram was born with a white ear; the flock now follows it, and the old ram lets it.
90	The moon rose with a notch in it, like a bite; the almanac lists no eclipse and has printed an apology.
91	Two rivers of birds crossed in the sky without mingling, one flying into winter, one out of it.
92	The dead oak on gallows hill has one green branch this morning, pointing at the road you came in by.
93	Everyone in the tavern dreamed of stairs.
94	The salt in the storehouse has formed a crust in the shape of a wave, and the town is two weeks from the nearest sea.
95	A funeral bell rang in a town with no dead; by evening, a rider arrived with news from the capital, and the bell ringer would not meet anyone's eyes.
96	The beggar at the gate refused coin today and instead gave one back, an old one, to a specific person, with a bow.
97	Candle wax dripped uphill along the altar, pooling at the foot of the statue whose eyes, everyone now recalls, used to be closed.
98	All the compasses in the chandlery agree with each other and disagree with the stars.
99	A child asked the priest, at the church door, who 'the tall lady in the bell tower' waves to at dusk. The tower has been sealed since the fire.
100	Roll twice more; the omens contradict each other, and both are true.