Secrets - Fountain of Secrets (Promptober 2025 #7)

Fountain of Secrets

This weather-stained stone goat face spews water into a basin underneath it. It sits next to a fine house away from the town's center, aa aging high-end private water supply for a well-to-do family. If you whisper to a copper coin and toss it in the basin, sometimes the goat's head will whisper a secret to you. If you bend down and put your ear to its mouth, the water will stop long enough for it to whisper softly, then resume spraying directly into your ear.

The secret might not have any relevance or context, and it may be hundreds of years old, but it is always true. It may promise treasure or threaten the reputation of someone in town. The goat may be old, but he still has an endless pile of secrets left to tell the world.

The fountain gives tantalizing almost-specific hints to something that may have happened in the past or a clue as to something that happened recently. It's an oracle spewing random truths with even more obfuscation than usual.

The Order of the Goat, the local thieves' guild, uses the fountain to pass messages late at night. If you toss a second coin you can whisper a secret into the goat's ear. The goat's head will remember that secret and add it to its list, and it will always whisper the new secret next to whoever comes and throws a coin.

Examples of secrets (and everyone loves a random table):

1d8	Secret
1	The young gardener believes consumption will kill him.
2	She cares for the happy child as if she bore them.
3	The soldier died long before he hit the ocean's waves.
4	Search his closet to find the alderman's skeletons.
5	Follow the orange cat to find her hidden wealth.
6	The guard captain bribed his way into his position.
7	Glory carries the reliquary to the crypt at midnight.
8	A bag hides in the tree where the crows first call every morning.

Nobody really knows where the goat's head came from, as the fountain has always been here in town. Many believe that the spirit of a powerful fey creature remains trapped in the goat's face as punishment for past transgressions. One day, someone will figure out the secret to unlock the prison and free the prisoner, gaining a powerful fey ally for life.

Part of the Promptober project for 2025.