How The Tale Is Told

The oracle turns over cards from the deck of Journeys, laying them out and telling the tale of what is to come. The oracle, though, cannot read the souls of the travellers and thus must ask often “what will you do?”.

The travellers answer with their intention and the Oracle continues the tale, telling of the outcomes of such actions.

If the outcomes are trivial or obvious, the Oracle's words are enough, but when they are not, the Oracle asks "Does this outcome matter to you?"
If the traveller says no, the narration continues. If the traveller says yes, the Oracle plays a hand.

The Oracle forms the hand by taking the current Journey card and then looking at a number of cards from the Peril deck equal to the number of Journey cards the players have already overcome, considering each one, and, if they are able to foresee that card's value as a reasonable outcome for the situation, adding it to the hand, placing any others aside.

The travellers offer cards from their decks, explaining how they aide in the approach being taken in the situation at hand.

The Oracle accepts the players' cards into the hand if the explanation is convincing or rejects them.

Only one approach may be made as a hand at a time, if multiple travellers are presenting cards for resolving the situation in different ways, one must be chosen to be played first, with cards that aide that approach only. Other approaches may be taken in later hands if needed.

The Oracle shuffles all the cards together and presents them face down to the traveller.
The traveller chooses a card at random. If it is a cyan card, things go well and they narrate how so based on the card chosen. If it is a red card, things go poorly and the Oracle narrates how so based on the card chosen.
After the hand all Perils are shuffled back into the Peril  and all other cards are returned to where they came from, deck and the fortune telling continues.

If any travellers contribute cards to a hand that was not started by their own approach, the discord peril card is added to the hand.

If a card in play is marked +Peril and the situation matches the trigger, an extra Peril card must be added to the hand from the Peril deck, which is it reshuffled back into after the hand.

If a card in play is marked +Promise and the situation matches the trigger, an extra Promise card must be added to the hand from the Promise deck, which its is reshuffled back into after the hand.

When a locale is revealed, it's peril or promise conditions remain in play until another locale replaces it as the travellers move on.

If a character is injured in their future foretold, they must draw a wound card and add it to their character deck. If they already have two wounds, they must instead take the Mortality wound card from the table or whichever traveller possesses it. If it is taken from another traveller, that traveller draws a new wound.

Wound cards must always be offered to the Oracle when their player contributes cards to a hand. The Oracle will accept or reject them based on whether or not they would be a hindrance in the current approach.

If a character gains some kind of important benefit they will continue to possess, such as equipment, an ability, or a companion, they draw a promise card which will stand in for that boon. Similarly if they gain some ongoing penalty for which a wound is not appropriate, they draw a peril card which will stand in for that issue and must always be offered and explained for hands, as if it were a wound. If a traveller loses something represented by a card, they should lose the card as well.

The play of fortune telling, challenges, and hands continues until the situation indicated by the Journey card is resolved.

Play continues in this way until the ultimate fate of the travellers is revealed. They must then choose as to whether or not they shall embark on their quest at all.

When the Oracle goes to draw from the deck of Journeys, if there is less than an hour left to play, they should instead move to the final encounter.

As you play, bring the fiction into focus. Ask questions to establish the specifics of your world and then continue to abide by the answers.
Who is the god you pray to and what is their domain? Does your armour make you look fancy or intimidating? What do you have to do to cast spells? Do these people care for merchants? Why is that a secret?

When choosing cards, travellers should be ambitious but respectful of the decisions of the Oracle who should be ruthless, only allowing cards that make sense in the fiction.