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Message: <blockquote data-quote="jaer" data-source="post: 3989772" data-attributes="member: 57861">I fully realize that dragon is uber intelligent and would not be renegging on, say, giving the noble wealth.  However, what "empty promises" could mean is that the noble now feels like a pawn, not the power.  While in the dragon's presense, he is overwhelmed.  When not, his ego is shattered and he needs to rid himself of this crazed tormentor.  He lives in constant fear: who is in league with the dragon?  Who are his allies and who are spies?Under the yoke of this oppressive entity, the noble might feel as though he already lost his wealth, his friends, his family: he has lost control of his world, which seems reason enough to me for the noble to turn against the dragon.Sure, the dragon is old and wise and intelligent; it has had pawns before and it knows the signs when they have out-lived their usefulness.  It might kill this noble and seek out another just fine; that's how it always ends.  Some nobles will follow the dragon unswirvingly to the end, but others will want more than to just be the pawn, they will want to take over the show and attempt a coup.  9 times out of 10 the noble gets killed before he can turn on the dragon, maybe 99 times out of 100.  But the dragon can't see everything all the time or else they could never be defeated.And the rule Derren presented was if the minions could hire a group of adventures to end the dragon's reign over them.  I would also add the conjecture of if the would do so.  In the scenerio presented, there is both opportunity to do so and plausible reason to do so: after all, how many people have tried to overthrow their mob-bosses?  It happens.  The second example of the dragon controlling the town, this does not seem like a villainous dragon, which seemed the point of the task.  But that was merely my interpetation of the spirit of Deren's rules.  After all, one could simply present the possibility of a gold dragon being every watchful on the king's family, looking for the oppotunity to sweep down and save them from danger if the need arises (and in a dangerous world, it could happen).The dragon introduced himself, and becomes the prince's protector, and while doing so, his educator and advisor.  When the prince becomes king, the dragon is already an influence.  And when the king has children, the dragon is their protector and educator as well.  It continues for a few generations until it has solidified it's role as the protector and educator and chief advisor of the royal family.  At which point, it practically controls the kingdom since it educates the royals from birth, most likely has it's own wing of the castle and hoard.With not alignment standard...any dragon could do this pretty much anywhere.  Though, at some point, in even a well-run kingdom with a benevolent king (with a benevolent dragon advisor), I'm sure some group of nobles will want to take over the kingdom, which would involve killing the royal family, or at least ousting them, and they have this ancient dragon protecting them...so someone would need to be hired to kill the dragon...which once again runs into Derren's rule about minions being able to and wanting to hire adventures to take out the dragon.</blockquote>

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