Dungeon Master: Orb of Foresight

The surface of the orb, beautifully white and seemingly polished, seems to fill with smoke as it is held. The blackness takes different shapes and forms as it is held until finally, it seems to hold a form. Three people seem to stand in front of a building. The building is unmistakable. The stained glass and shape gives it away. The party easily recognizes one of the people too...

Orb of Foresight

A perfectly white orb that easily fits into the hand of a grown person, an orb of foresight is a rather interesting item. It remains perfectly white and clean until activated. Sometimes I've seen this happen by asking questions out loud but I have also seen how it can be used by mere thought. When activated, a question about the future is answered by the form that black swirling, almost like smoke, takes. Sometimes this answer is in the form of a still form. Sometimes, though more rarely, the form moves and acts out a soundless scene. The clarity and quality of the image can greatly range based seemingly on the question asked but also based on the orb. In my studies, some orbs were mentioned to have very crude representations where others more commonly displayed clearer images, even when asking the same question. They are very rare; so much of my work was based on old manuscripts mentioning these artifacts.

The orb also has some other odd properties. If dropped or thrown, the orb does not roll or bounce. Instead, it falls straight down after hitting an object and it stays where it landed until picked up. It also does not seem to transfer heat or cold through it. Even if held in a flame or ice, it keeps it's temperature constant.

Mechanics

Viewings can only be done through the orb after attuning to the item. Pick a dice. Another viewing can only be made that many days later (I suggest a D10 or D20).

The result of the viewing is displayed by a black smoke or liquid shape that takes from on the orb. It disappears when desired by attuned creature or when it is out of reach of the attuned creature.

Since the future is influenced by the actions of creatures and can have wide reaching effects, the visions of the orb are not guaranteed to come to be (though your players may not be aware of this at first). Choose a DC and roll a D20. On a success the correct events will be shown and on a failure an alternate course of events is shown instead (on some failure, not less than 5 for example, nothing may be shown instead).

Variant

Instead of a time delay, roll a dice (I suggest a D10, D6 or D4). This is how many questions will be answered by the orb. After the last question is answered, the black smoke doesn't fully retreat from the white surface of the orb. Where the smoke stays, cracks form and the orb falls apart in the hands of the user.

Variant 2

This orb, a cursed version, only shows incorrect versions of the future no matter how many times asked. A creature may remove curse of similar magic cast to be free of the cursed orb. While it is cursed in this way, nightmares alternate futures fill its dreams. When performing a saving throw, roll a D20. On a 16 or higher, the creature has disadvantage on the saving throw. This curse only occurs once per long rest.

Variant 3

This defective orb either shows nothing or shows the complete opposite of what is really true.

Notes of Caution

Putting this kind of item in the hands of your players or NPCs will obviously have a great effect on the campaign. Before putting this item into your game, make sure you understand how big an effect knowledge of the future will have. As the Dungeon Master, you control the knowledge obtained by the orb so it is not necessarily game breaking but it may also be needed for plot reasons (to provide information of the villains plans, where to find the villain and how to stop them).