While waiting, I've set down my ideas for an agent. I present the first draft of ... The Physician
The Physician is a false-front agent who gains influence by removing problems. But who is willing to create the harms that let him be a hero.
"He enjoys, perhaps too much, life and death red in his hands."
Inspiration: Frank Burns from the book M*A*S*H. Unlike the TV character, he is competent surgeon who thinks the war is great. He is skilled at open heart massage, the way to save someone whose heart stopped in the days before defibrillators. And, the narrator believes, willing allow his patients to drift into danger so he can dramatically rescue them.
Stats: Don't know. Something like the Peddler most likely. Decent but not great for Infiltration and Command. Definitely not combat oriented.
Scheme: Again, I don't know how these work. Either something emphasizing his skills in medicine or how he can use those skills to gain people trust. I'm partial to The Great Healer where, once he gains the trust of several nations, even more start trusting him because they've heard of the good he does.
Interactions:
-With Heroes: If he approaches a wounded Hero he gains extremely low level Infiltration (medical history) and gets the following choices:
1) Trust in my skills. (Wound's severity is reduced. Speed of damage healing increased for a bit. Timer is started to keep this event from firing constantly (see Quests.) Agent gets influence with Hero's groups and Profile improved. No clue is generated.)
2) I'll see what I can do. (Speed of damage healing increased and timer started. Possibly minor influence and Profile improvements, but this isn't something that really gets the Hero bragging about the Agent. Extremely difficult clue left since he isn't doing his best work.)
3) You're lucky we met in time. (Wound's severity is increased leading to possible amputations or death. Possible minor influence and Profile improvements. Leave difficult clue, but see Investigate quest below.)
4) Old one specific option. A plague god could make the hero a disease carrier. A mind one may do Manchurian Candidate programming. A war god could plant the seeds of berserker rage.
This is the core of what he does: move damage around. He gains trust by helping weaker heroes with minor problems and then spends it to cripple the key opposition.
-With armies: May attach himself to an army causing it to suffer fewer casualties in fighting. Influence with the controlling nation goes up. With the Great Healer scheme, may even improve influence with the opposing nation, since the Agent obviously wants to help everyone.
Again, moving damage around. This time making an army more durable than it appears, wearing down the other. Good for escalating conflict between nations by drawing out a war. Also useful when your armies start marching.
-With the map: Does various ill health, miasma, and poisoning actions more quickly and with harder to detect clues than other agents.
He also can remove these conditions himself, gaining influence, lowering Profile, and disguising or eliminating any clues left behind. Yes, this means he can poison a village and then swoop in and save it.
Note, there are lines he cannot safely cross. Once someone massacres an orphanage, it doesn't matter how many soup kitchens they organize.
I suspect this interaction will see heavy use. He will gain trust by helping out. Then, since the guy who knows how to cure a disease is obviously an expert in lots of other stuff, will bend ears with his advice.
Quests: His recruitment causes two specific quests.
First) Seek aid from The Physician.
-Trigger: Hero is at least moderately wounded (no flesh wounds), is within N POIs, The Physician is respected by the Hero, and The Physician has a low profile (Hero has heard the man will be able to help.)
OR
-Trigger B: as above, but Hero must be severely wounded and The Physician has no higher than a medium profile but the Hero has no specific anti-Physician knowledge. (Perhaps the things they say are just rumors.)
-Behavior: Hero moves towards Physician and triggers the Hero Interaction (see above).
Second) Investigate The Physician
-Trigger: Hero* has a friend who dies or retires shortly after treatment by The Physician. (Ideally it might become available even if The Physician isn't the cause. Health is mysterious.) If the number of victims is low, this should be a low probability choice; but it should rise with their numbers.
-Behavior: Hero seeks places Physician did things. The clue from Physician-Hero Interaction Choice 3 should be more obvious.
-Success: Hero realizes The Physician is trouble. Starts spreading word. May start chasing to attack. Places that are told may decrease his influence. Or react hostilely to the accuser.
-Failure: Perhaps an exoneration counter. The more times someone fails this quest, the harder it gets.
*for genre reasons, preferably a low insight type. The High insight types tend to understand how difficult medicine is and trust other highly skilled individuals. Affinity fraud strikes again.
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Topic: That which sleeps- Kickstarted! (Read 373736 times)