The Conspirator's Cloak

Rules

Performing the Ritual

Performing this ritual takes at least 2 minutes of roleplaying. This ritual targets a character, who must be present throughout.

This ritual is an enchantment. A target may only be under one enchantment effect at a time. This is also a personal aura. A target may only be under the effect of one personal aura at a time.

Effects

At the conclusion of the ritual, the target is infused with an aura of confidence and conspiratorial glee. They experience a potent roleplaying effect; they feel clever and confident, secure in their own plans and schemes, and convinced of their superior intellect and ambitions. They rarely experience guilt about the decisions they make, and they find it easy to take whatever action is needed to advance their goals.

This enchantment fills a target with cunning wiles and conspiratorial leanings.

This also provides a source of spiritual strength for purposes of overcoming any roleplaying effect that would coerce them to follow another being, or to reveal information about their plans, schemes or actions.

This enchantment is a personal aura, similar to that created using the anointing ceremony. A character can only be under one aura at a time. This ritual will replace any standard personal aura (including those created by similar rituals), but is not powerful enough to remove a personal aura with a strength higher than one. Likewise, any anointing can replace (or remove) this enchantment. A detect magic spell determines the realm and magnitude of the effect, but the insight skill will not detect any spiritual component to the enchantment.

The effect lasts until the start of the next Profound Decisions Empire event.

Additional Targets

This ritual can affect additional characters from the same band. Every additional character increases the magnitude by 3. Additional characters must be present throughout.

Description

This enchantment fills a target with the cunning wiles and conspiratorial leanings of a denizen of the Autumn realm. This ritual is commonly used by infiltrators, spies, scouts and politicians who take advantage of the mental and emotional fortitude it provides them to remain focused on their goals and to avoid revealing details of their plans during interrogation.

The Conspirator's Cloak has been controversial in the past because it creates an aura that seems similar to, but is distinct from, the kind of aura a priest can create with the ceremony of anointing. Most obviously, it is not created using liao (and has no spiritual component that might be examined with the insight ceremony). Rather than being drawn from the Labyrinth or the spiritual strength of humanity, it is a magical construct. Yet it cannot be denied that the way it effects the target is very different to the kind of influence enchantments such as the strange sensations created by Shadow of the Bronze Colossus, or the drive to fight as a group experienced by those under Barked Command of the Iron Serjant. The fact that it replaced (and is replaced by) a typical anointing strongly implies that there is more going on here than is involved with those straightforward enchantments. The most common explanation that most scholars can come up with is that it is something to do with the spiritual strength the enchantment grants that allows the target to overcome unwanted influences - a key quality of anointing and other similar effects.

Regardless of precisely what is going on, the strength of the aura does not vary; it is not possible to create a strong aura through the use of this ritual. Some magicians speculate that it might be possible to make a similar ritual of a higher magnitude that would be more resistant to removal - in the same way that priests can cooperate and invest additional liao to create a stronger anointing.

The ritual can be made permanent with ilium; magicians and priests alike who have studied this ritual (and similar enchantments, speculate that as an ilium-infused enchantment it would require true liao to remove the enchantment with an anointing. Access to true liao is limited, however, and so far no-one has attempted to do this.

Common Elements

This ritual usually involves a conspiratorial meeting, and the rune Queros. Ritualists or targets may be masked, and an oath or promise is often sworn between the targets to accept death before betraying their purpose. The ritual is often sealed with a shared goblet of wine or fruit juice, or by cutting the thumb or palm.