Omens d20

Once all players have created their characters, the player of the youngest character rolls d20. The result becomes the Party's shared Omen. If several characters are tied for youngest, the Omen is determined by whichever of their players rolled for age last.

If a character's Life Path is Foundling, their player rolls an additional d20 regardless of the character's age and keeps the result secret. If the Foundling's player also determines the Party's shared Omen, they determine two separate results: the Party's public Omen and the Foundling's secret Omen.

d20	Omen	Description
1	The River Flows Backward	One morning, a steppe river begins to flow slowly backward. A few days later, smaller rivers and streams do the same. Fish leave with the water, and old fords are flooded.
2	Early Winter	Winter arrives too early. Frost grips the earth, and patterns of frost on windows and smooth stones begin to form the same map.
3	The Sacred Spring	A sacred spring begins to run dry after people break a taboo of the place. At night, an ancient spirit appears beside it, demanding the return of what was taken.
4	Fading Stars	Each night, several stars disappear from the sky. Familiar routes vanish with them: travellers lose their way even where they have walked all their lives. The elders say that when the last familiar constellation goes dark, a road will open for something that must never return.
5	The Steppe Falls Silent	Birds' calls, the chirping of insects, and the usual sounds of night disappear. Even horses grow uneasy and refuse to leave the camps. At dusk, travellers notice a motionless figure in the distance, closer each night.
6	Cursed Gold	Gold found in the steppe cannot be given away, sold, or abandoned: it returns to the Inventory of whoever took it from its resting place. The farther the traveller goes, the heavier the gold becomes. Carrying it forces them to abandon water, food, and other possessions. The remains of lost caravans are already being found in the steppe: untouched gold lies among empty waterskins and desiccated bodies.
7	A Wall of Locusts	A dark band appears on the horizon. It grows until its nature becomes clear: a wall of locusts is advancing, blotting out the sky and devouring everything edible in its path.
8	Red Stones	Drops of dark red moisture cover the stones of an ancient burial place. However often they are wiped away, they return by morning. Soon, the same drops begin to appear on stones near camps.
9	The Crimson Moon	On the night of a crimson moon, fires begin to burn ever more weakly. First, fires under the open sky go out, then hearth fires. They can be relit in the morning, but each following night the flames last for less time.
10	Cracks in the Sky	Thin cracks appear in the night sky. Each night there are more, and the boundaries between the familiar world and what lies beyond it grow weaker.
11	The Night Flower	A night flower thought extinct reappears across the steppe. Its fragrance is intoxicatingly beautiful, but causes vivid nightmares.
12	The Night Circle	At nightfall, all livestock gather of their own accord around human camps. The animals refuse to leave even for water. Each night the circle grows tighter, as though they are seeking shelter among people from something in the steppe.
13	Vanished Shadows	At first, a few people lose their shadows. After several days, more and more people are affected. They feel as they always have, but animals begin to fear them.
14	The White Beast	Hunters speak of a curse that befalls anyone who kills a white-furred beast: those hunters are soon found dead. Each day, fewer white beasts remain.
15	Voices from the Wells	Faint laughter rises from the wells, turning to sobbing as night falls.
16	An Unfamiliar Dawn	One day, the sun rises where it should not. Only a few people notice. The next day, more people do, but everyone else insists that the sun has always risen there.
17	The Dead Tree	A solitary ancient tree that served travellers as a landmark suddenly withers. When its trunk splits, a fresh, bloody human handprint is found inside.
18	The Ancestors' Faces Vanish	The faces of ancient stone statues begin to grow smooth, as if they had never been carved. Soon, people notice that children are no longer being born in the nearby auls.
19	Tracks of the Dead Caravan	Each morning, tracks left by many people, horses, and wagons appear along an old caravan route, although no one passed in the night. They always lead in one direction — never back.
20	The Pale Rider	Children in different auls dream of the same pale, almost transparent rider. He rides from camp to camp and speaks to people, but no one can make out his words. After each such dream, more people cease to understand one another's speech: familiar words sound foreign, and simple conversations end in quarrels. In the dream, the steppe gradually begins to burn behind the rider.

Note

The table preserves Cairn 2e's d20 structure, but its contents are adapted for DAIRN. Results No. 11, No. 14, and No. 15 follow the meaning of the official Russian Cairn 2e version more closely; the other adaptations are retained.