The Path
Of Shimmering Water
• Averting
The Eyes
Cost: 1 mote for every +1 in difficulty
Duration: One scene
Type: Simple
This power causes others to look
away from the Dragon King. While it does not render the character invisible,
this power enhances the user’s Stealth. Every mote the character spends on this
power increases the difficulty of all Perception + Awareness rolls to notice
the Dragon King by +1. This increased difficulty only applies so long as the
Dragon King is attempting to be stealthy. If the Dragon King enters combat or
does anything else to draw attention to herself, the power immediately ends.
Dragon Kings cannot use this power
when they are being observed. Also, they cannot spend more motes on this power
than their permanent Essences.
•• Visage Of
Another Face
Cost: 3 motes
Duration: One day
Type: Simple
The Dragon King can use her growing
powers of illusion to disguise herself as someone else. The character changes
his appearance, voice, scent and even the feeling of her skin into that of any
reptilian creature that looks vaguely similar. A Raptok could disguise himself
as a Pterok, as one of the hounds of the Endless Hunt or a half-grown claw
strider.
Charms or artifacts that allow
characters to pierce illusions can penetrate this disguise. However, without such
magics, this disguise is exceptionally believable and can only be penetrated if
the character examines the Dragon King closely and his player succeeds at a
Perception + Awareness roll with a difficulty equal to the Dragon King’s Wits +
her rating with this Path. However, this power does not allow the Dragon King
to gain any of the abilities or advantages of the form she has temporarily assumed.
It only changes her appearance.
••• Guise Of
The New Form
Cost: 3 motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: Permanent Essence in hours
Type: Simple
The character changes his
appearance, voice, scent and even the feeling of her skin into that of any
other vaguely humanoid creature. A Dragon King could disguise himself as a
Western Dragon King, a green-haired Haltan, a bandy-legged Arczeckhi barbarian
or a beastman. While his illusionary abilities are not sufficient to imitate a
specific individual, he can alter his apparent height by as much as one foot.
This disguise is exceptionally believable and can only be penetrated by Charms
designed to pierce illusions or if the observer examines the Dragon King
closely and her player succeeds at a Perception + Awareness roll with a
difficulty equal to the Dragon King’s Wits + his rating with this Path. This
power also does not allow the Dragon King to gain any of the abilities or
advantages of the form he has temporarily assumed. It only changes his
appearance.
In addition to being useful for
disguise, this power also allows the Dragon King to alter his voice and appearance
so that he becomes far more effective at singing, acting or storytelling. The
Dragon King’s player adds a number of dice equal to his character’s level with this
Path to any appropriate Performance roll made while this power is active. When
the duration of this power runs out, the Dragon King can continue it simply by spending
5 more motes.
•••• Unseen
Form Technique
Cost: 5 motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: Path level in minutes
Type: Simple
This power allows the Dragon King to
become invisible. In fact, she can literally vanish from sight. Characters can perform
any activity while invisible, even combat. However, this power does not render
the Dragon King immaterial. She can be detected normally by touch, by scent or
by hearing.
Players of enemies may attempt a
reflexive Perception + Awareness roll each turn for their characters to spot
the Dragon King. If an observer saw the Dragon King disappear, noticed the
Dragon King last turn or witnessed an action performed by the character, the
difficulty for the check is only 1. However, the difficulty increases by one
for every turn that the character remains undetected, to a maximum of 5. If the
observer has some reason to believe that someone is around (a knocked over
vase, footprints in the sand) the difficulty for spotting the character starts
at 3 and scales up. Just looking casually for the invisible Dragon King has a
difficulty of 5. Even when spotted, any actions taken against the character are
at a +2 difficulty. Dragon Kings who engage in hand-to-hand combat are always
considered to be spotted.
••••• Veil
Of Deception
Cost: 6 motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: One scene
Type: Simple
Dragon Kings can disguise both
themselves and others as any other creature or object of approximately the same
size. A Dragon King could disguise herself as a rock, the Perfect of Paragon or
a giant wolf spider.
Dragon Kings can also disguise
others with this same power but must touch them to do so. This power alters the
subject’s appearance, voice and scent but not the feel of her skin. Anyone who
touches a rock and feels the Dragon King’s scaled skin will be instantly aware that
some deception is occurring. Also, all Charms, spells and artifacts that allow
their users to see through illusions instantly penetrate this power.
If desired, the Dragon King can
maintain the illusion for additional scenes by simply spending 5 more motes of
Essence for every illusion she wishes to maintain. Using this power to disguise
anyone as a specific person is more difficult than simply looking like a rock.
While this power normally does not
require a roll, attempting to imitate someone without carefully observing the
person for a full day requires an Intelligence + Larceny roll with a difficulty
of 3. However, such observation lowers the difficulty to 1. A failed roll means
that the disguised character does not believably pass as the target although
she looks similar to this person.
••••• • Perfection
Of Illusion
Cost: 7 motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: Willpower in turns
Type: Simple
The Dragon King can create
exceptionally subtle illusions. She can cause these illusions to be visible to everyone
watching or only to one or a small number of observers. The Dragon King must be
able to clearly see everyone she wishes to perceive the illusion. This power can
be used to cause the targets to hear the details of a conversation differently,
to not see someone pouring poison in a goblet or even to see someone else
nearby pouring the poison. Although this power only lasts for a short time, it
can subtly alter as few or as many details of the targets’ environment as the
Dragon King wishes to change. The Dragon King can affect any portion of her environment
that is within (permanent Essence x 5) yards. This adds a number of dice equal
to the Dragon King’s permanent Essence to Presence, Socialize, Larceny or other
rolls that benefit from this deception.
When used in combat, this power can
add or subtract a number of dice equal to the Dragon King’s permanent Essence
from all attack, parry or dodge rolls by everyone attacking or being attacked
by a single target. All deceptions created by this power can be detected with
the appropriate illusion-piercing Charms, spells or artifacts. Alternately,
anyone who carefully observes the scene and whose player succeeds at a
Perception + Awareness roll with a difficulty equal to the Dragon King’s
Essence can also see what’s actually occurring.