Age of Dragons: Ambassador-Courtier

Age Of Dragons: Main Page -> Age Of Dragons: Lifepaths -> Ambassador-Courtier

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Overview

Words cut deeper than claws

It had been an interesting month for the Solar Ambassador-Courtier called Voice-of-Reason. He'd convinced a belligerent Argent Dragon to lend his armies to defend the borders of a neighbouring Pure Dragon, and convinced that same self righteous Pure Dragon to accept that help. In doing so, he'd had to convince both that they were doing him a personal favour, which he in turn would repay by persuading a visiting Ashen Dragon scholar to share the scrolls of lore that he had researched. Of course, this meant giving the Ashen Dragon what he wanted, which was help in getting a pack of Hunter Dragons to lay off harrying his cities. This would be achieved, of course, when the Hunters saw a mass of Argent War Dragons setting up a wayfort on the edge of their sky tribe's territory. Of course, once the Ascendancy threat was dealt with, the Solar could earn a favour off the Hunters by "arranging" for the Argents to go home.

Everyone would benefit, and the only reward for Voice-of-Reason would be the general goodwill of all parties, and the satisfaction of coordinating the war against the Ascendancy. That, of course, and the small measure of wealth that the Solar could earn by having his merchants supply the moving Argent army, the sale of the fort building materials he'd been assidiously stockpiling and the opportunity to converse formally with the Ashen Dragon, and plant some seeds of ideas there to be used and abused in a decade or two once they had time to germinate.

Most importantly, the Argent response would lead to the assured, painful and violent death of Hungry-for-Battle, the Ascendancy general in charge of the assault. That Blood Dragon had duelled with Voice of Reason no less than one hundred and fifty years ago, and left a nasty claw-scar on the Solar's left cheek. It had taken a lot of work to see the Blood Dragon moved up the list of generals to lead this raid, to assure that the Ascendancy force would be inadequate for the job, to make sure that the Argent had a pathological hatred of Blood Dragons and to position the surrounding factions so that the Ascendancy would be cut off from retreat after this attack. It had been a lot of work, but it had been worth every iota of effort.

Negotiation, persuasion and the art of manipulation - these were the tools and weapons of this Ambassador-Courtier, and as Hungry-Claw would soon discover, words could cut far deeper than claws.

The Ambassador-Courtier Lifepath

Dragons are socially adept creatures, with even the most brutish of dragons able to play games of intrigue and manipulation at a level far beyond those of mortals.

Whereas a human might be pleased to persuade an adversary to adopt a certain course of action for the next year, or to socially outmanoeuvre someone in court, Dragons play out their social conflicts on far greater levels. With words in the right places, a dragon can cause kingdoms to topple or enemies to be ostracised from society. They can smear the most loved hero as a traitor, or bring the most unlikely allies into the fold. Likewise, a Dragon will happily work over much larger timescales to achieve his goals, recognising that a major victory that takes one hundred and fifty years is likely worth a lot more than one hundred and fifty trivial victories that take a year each.

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Lifepath Powers

The Connected Web of Breath

• Experience level required: 50
• Activation Cost: 1 Arcane Energy
• Keywords: Suspire;

You can instantly analyse a social mileu, establishing who has social contact within that environs and how strong the contact is. For the purposes of this power social contact is any spoken conversation, and the strength of the contact is how often each pair of individuals has spoken. You can detect the presence of connections with 100% accuracy, and detect strength of connections to one of the following: (more than once a day, more than once a week, more than once a month, more than once a year, less than once a year, never).

Wind Whisper

• Experience level required: 60
• Activation Cost: 1 Arcane Energy
• Keywords: Suspire;

To cast this spell, the Dragon must know the target's birth-name and be outdoors in a strong wind. The target must be somewhere within one thousand miles, and there must be a continuous path through the air to the target (though through the crachs of closed doors and the like is sufficient). The Dragon simply speaks a single sentence, and then the Dragon's words are carried to the ears of the target, travelling as fast as the wind is currently blowing.

Phrase of Fascination

• Experience level required: 100
• Activation Cost: 1 Arcane Energy
• Keywords: Suspire;

You can subtly weight a single phrase within your arguments, so others will remember it above all others. This phrase has no inherent power in itself, and is not a command as such, but rather a sticky meme that listeners cannot shake and will persistently come to mind for them in years to come. For example, you could weight the phrase "we are all brothers, after all", and for years afterwards the listener will consider these words, perhaps slightly inclining him towards negotiation rather than war, or perhaps making him more vengeful when a comrade is wronged. This is a subtle, subconscious and magical effect.

Impassioned Aggression

• Experience level required: 125
• Activation Cost: 1 Mental Energy
• Keywords: Discipline;

You can activate Impassioned Aggression at the start of your Battle Phase in social combat. Until the start of your next roynd, you gain +1 dice on attack rolls relating to social attacks, but -3 to your Mental Defence.

Guarded Words

• Experience level required: 125
• Activation Cost: 1 Mental Energy
• Keywords: Discipline;

You can activate Guarded Words at the start of your Battle Phase in social combat. Until the start of your next roynd, you gain -1 dice on attack rolls relating to social attacks, but +3 to your Mental Defence.

Idea-Seeding Technique

• Experience level required: 150
• Activation Cost: 2 Mental Energy
• Keywords: Discipline;

On a successful persuasion attempt you can seed an idea into a target's subconscious rather than directly persuading them. This idea will take time to develop, and when it arrives will be considered by the target to be his own idea. A passing thought or consideration takes a few days to appear, a motivated plan takes a decade or so to manifest, and a deeply held belief or agenda takes a century to germinate. This is not a magical effect, but rather achieved through careful neurolinguistic programming, so is limited to the sort of things you could normally achieve through persuasion.

Charisma

• Experience level required: 200
• Activation Cost: 2 Mental Energy (per +1 dice)
• Keywords: Discipline;

When activated gain +1 dice to a single social tests relating to a face to face social interactions (such as conversation, direct intimidation, lying to someone's face, oratory or seduction). Essentially, any task involving face-to-face social influence can be enhanced by this power. You can use this power multiple times on a single roll. This power can only be used before you roll the dice.

Oath of Brotherhood

• Experience level required: 240
• Activation Cost: 1 Arcane Energy
• Keywords: Suspire;

To cast this spell, the Dragon must breath into the mouth of another Dragon, then inhale their breath afterwards. Both must then speak the words "I swear you are as my kin." After this spell is cast, the Ambassador-Courtier cannot offer violence to his sworn brother, or vice versa. Any physical violence of any sort immediately curses the offending party, marking him with glowing runes of treachery, that burn into his flesh permanently scarring him and dealing 4D6 physical damage to him, but immediately ending the spell's effect (thus freeing the other to engage in violence as they will). The spell is ineffective on anyone who has slain an immediate member of their own family (i.e. brother, sister, child or parent), and simply will not work in those circumstances. Similarly, if a dragon bound by the Oath of Brotherhood kills an immediate member of his own family, the Oath's effects end, and an instant pang of emotional pain is felt by both of the Oathbound.

Claim of Hospitality

• Experience level required: 250
• Activation Cost: 1 Arcane Energy
• Keywords: Suspire;

To cast this spell, the Dragon must be invited into the home, lair or domain of another Dragon, and freely offered something to eat. The Ambassador-Courtier then speaks the words "I accept hospitality." After this spell is cast, the Ambassador-Courtier cannot offer violence to his host, or vice versa. Similarly, those who are under the host's command, or in the Ambassador's retinue cannot harm each other, or be harmed by each other. Any physical violence of any sort immediately curses the offending party, marking him with glowing runes of treachery, that burn into his flesh permanently scarring him and dealing 4D6 physical damage to him, but immediately ending the spell's effect (thus freeing the mystic binding of others, allowing them to engage in violence as they will).

Sanctum

• Experience level required: 260
• Activation Cost: 1 Arcane Energy
• Keywords: Suspire;

To cast this spell, the Dragon must select a Sanctum object that is inscribed with mystic runes (this could be a skull, a gem, a rock, or whatever). The Dragon then breathes on it, whispering the words "I swear that I submit to the Sanctum, and I will draw no blood." Any other Dragons in the vicinity can then do the same, and the Sanctum object will glow slightly with each utterance. For twenty four hours afterwards, none of the Dragons who participated in the ritual may draw blood from any of the other Dragons who were part of the ritual, so long as they are within a ten mile radius of the Sanctum object. Destroying the Sanctum object negates the effect, so Ambassador-Courtiers who wish their Sanctum to have any meaning pick suitably resilience objects. Any Dragon bound by the ritual who does draw blood is immediately dealt 4D6 physical damage by the magics of the ritual, and the effect of the Sanctum spell is immediately ended.

Beast Speech

• Experience level required: 300
• Activation Cost: 2 Arcane Energy
• Keywords: Suspire; Vitamancy;
• Vitamancy spells cannot be cast by Death-aligned Dragons.

When this spell is cast, the spellcaster gains the ability to communicate verbally with all animals, and is able to understand any reply, though of course the animal's own level if intellect will limit the levels of conversation. Any creature that already has a spoken language of any sort (such as humans, dragons, etc.) cannot be targeted by this power.

Crown of Domination

• Experience level required: 300
• Activation Cost: 2 Arcane Energy
• Keywords: Suspire; Hierarchomancy;
• Hierarchomancy spells cannot be cast by Chaos-aligned Dragons.

This spell can be used up to Long Range and requires a Pneuma attack against the target's Mental Defence. Casting Crown of Domination requires a Battle Action. The spellcaster speaks a single single word command, which (if the spell is successful) the target must immediately obey to the best of his ability. The command cannot be directly self-harming or self-destructive, but can be indirectly so. For example, you could not command "Jump" to a man standing at a clifftop, but you could command "Scream" to someone who is trying to hide, or "Stop" to someone who is trying to flee from you. The duration of the command is never greater than a single combat round. This spell can be used at any range as long as the target can hear your words.

Echo of Silence

• Experience level required: 300
• Activation Cost: 4 Arcane Energy
• Keywords: Suspire; Necromancy;
• Necromancy spells cannot be cast by Life-aligned Dragons.

Casting this spell is a Battle Action, and requires a Pneuma check at TN equal to the highest Arcane Defence within the encounter. The spellcaster whispers an incantation of ending. If the spell is cast successfully, all conversation in the area ends, and any social conflict that the Dragon is present in immediately terminates. The silence only last five or six seconds, but there is a definite full stop to any social interaction up to that point, and few will be inclined to start new conversations in the same environment.

Word of Dissonance

• Experience level required: 300
• Activation Cost: 4 Arcane Energy
• Keywords: Suspire; Autarchomancy;
• Autarchomancy spells cannot be cast by Life-aligned Dragons.

Casting this spell is a Battle Action, and requires a Pneuma check at TN equal to the Mental Defence of the target. The spell can be used up to long range. The spellcaster speaks a word of chaos, which has no meaning but which strikes into a single target's psyche disrupting his thoughts. If the spell is cast successfully, the target is rendered unable to speak coherently or understand any language (whether spoken or written) for the next twenty four hours. This spell can be used at any range as long as the target can hear your voice. This renders the target unable to participate in social combat, but also mostly immune to its effects. Note that using this spell on someone is generally considered to be a declaration of aggression in itself, so the autarchomancer should perhaps not be surprised if he is the subject of violence from the incoherent one.

Puppetmaster

• Experience level required: 400
• Activation Cost: 2 Mental Energy (per +1 dice)
• Keywords: Discipline;

When activated gain +1 dice to a single social tests relating to indirect communication or societal manipulation (such as letter writing, working through proxies, propaganda campaigning and the like). You can use this power multiple times on a single roll. This power can only be used before you roll the dice.

Elder's Mandate of Attention

• Experience level required: 500
• Activation Cost: 1 Arcane Energy
• Keywords: Suspire;

When you use this power, you capture and command the notice of others as such that they cannot help but give you their attention, and that they cannot speak to interrupt.

In social conflict, you can use this power at the start of any younger combatant's round, If you do so, they are struck silent momentarily and cannot make any social attacks this round.

• Linguist (1XP per language)

Each time you take this Milestone, select a language. You can now speak and write that language as well as a local. To learn a language you must have some social contact with others who speak that language, or access to comprehensive texts that can teach you the language. Note that some mystical languages (such as Voidtongue cannot be learnt through this Milestone.)

• Established Reputation (50 XP per reputation)

You have developed (or rather carefully cultured) specific a reputation for having a certain style and personality. When you can use this reputation to your advantage you gain a -1 TN bonus to social rolls. For example, if you have a reputation for being merciless to your enemies, you can use this to enhance intimidation attempts. If you have a reputation for being honourable and truthful, you can use this when you attempt to deceive or convince others of your sincerity. Reputations can also count against you, and in these circumstances you suffer a +1 TN penalty to social rolls. You can have multiple reputations, and they can cancel each other out, but you never are at more than a -1 TN bonus or a +1 TN penalty from reputations.

• Social Resilience (20 XP)

Through a carefully cultivated persona of untouchability you are harder than normal to effect with social attacks. In social conflicts, you are at -1 TN to all Resist Injury checks.

• Tradewind Rider (15XP)

You have spent time learning the geography of the sky across the Realm, through a mix of personal experience and hard research. The travel time for any skyborne journey of five hundred miles or more that you make is reduced by 20%. You can pass this bonus onto any others who travel with you, as they can follow your navigation lead. In some circumstances (such as especially unfamiliar locales, or dangerous journeys), the GM may disallow this ability.

• Xenoculturalist (4XP per culture)

Each time you take this Milestone, select a culture, either mortal or draconic. You now know about that culture as well as one of its members. To learn about a culture you must have the opportunity to directly observe that culture, or access to comprehensive texts about it.

Lifepath Resources

• Spies and Messengers

A Dragon who has spent at least 25 years as an Ambassador-Courtier will have acquired a small entourage of spies and messengers, who he can dispatch to carry out his will. This Lifepath Resource is usually a minimum requirement for making indirect social attacks when there is any sort of geographic distance. The exact nature of the spies and messengers will vary according to the dragon's breed and style, but will be the equivalent in effectiveness and utility to six well trained human spies, and two dozen competent human diplomats.

• Network of Contacts

A Dragon who has spent at least 50 years as an Ambassador-Courtier is presumed to have established a network of contacts, both mortal and draconic. When arriving in a new locale, or when trying to contact a particular social group or organisation, he can make a Pneuma check (typically TN 4+, with difficulty 1 to 4) to see if he knows anyone as a prior contact.

• Web of Favours

A Dragon who has spent at least 100 years as an Ambassador-Courtier is almost certainly owed favours by a multitude of dragons and mortals, having spent a lot of his downtime weaving webs of intrigue and obligation. When he encounters a contact or other known individual for the first time after gaining this Lifepath Resource, he can make a Pneuma check (typically TN 4+, with difficulty equal to the targets Sophis, plus additional difficulty according to how resistant the target is to be indebted to an Ambassador-Courtier of his breed and station) to see if a favour is owed. This favour might not necessarily be honoured, and might be somewhat indirect, but it is there to be mentioned and called on.

• Politician's Authority

A Dragon who has spent at least 250 years as an Ambassador-Courtier will without a doubt have worked his way into a position where he is respected, and his authority formally recognised. The GM and player should collaborate to design a societal role suitable for the experience Courtier, be it as a draconic councilman in the Alliance, or as a respected chamberlain in the courts of Endless Night.

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