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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Set" data-source="post: 3990236" data-attributes="member: 41584">Has the noble ever been anything else?  No matter his station, he's not the King.  But he's got something the King doesn't know a thing about, a level of power that the King would kill to have at his back.  The noble, if he's clever, might even think that *he's* the one manipulating the dragon, and that it's some sort of 'big gun' at his disposal (and the dragon may choose to allow this notion to persist, to a point...).  Even if the dragon is working directly with the King of the land (behind the scenes), the King might be foolish enough to believe that this is normal, that the dragon has *always* served the crown as a valuable ally, to be treated respectfully in it's presence, but basically an asset to the kingdom.  After all, the dragon 'advised' his father, and his father's father, and rumor has it, advised the vary first King who united the warring lands with the help of the dragon's sage council!If the dragon, in it's superhuman intellect and wisdom, *chooses* to break the will of one or more of his supporters, then it will be someone who won't have the strength of will to fight that process.In the real world, the most vicious gang-bosses often have extremely loyal 'soldiers,' who *enjoy* the fearful respect that they gain from the people around them, who recognize that they are 'made men,' and that they are untouchable, as they work for 'the boss.'  And yes, they are all-too aware that the same power-drill and chainsaw 'lessons' could be applied to them if they forget their place.  They have a 'good thing' going.  Why mess with it, especially when you know that the consequences are a sudden transition from 'well off and successful, with the fear and respect of everyone around you' to 'painful slow demise, as an object lesson to anyone else who wants to break faith with the boss.'  Blood in.  Blood out.  You're in the gang?  You're in the gang for life.  That can be a long time, with plenty of coin, respect, wine, women and song, or a very short time, with a lot of pain.  You get to choose.Some people can't live being second dog.  They won't work for a dragon anymore than they would be loyal to their king, or emperor, or god.  They'll die, or succeed in seizing power, in any event, but they'll have a harder time seizing power from a dragon than they would assassinating their king and seizing his throne...If he *wants* to live in fear of the creature that advised everyone in his family and built them up from ruffians in the forests to the 'noble' family in the manor on the hill, then that's his choice.  By the time that the dragon has established himself to this extent, he's *an institution.*  People grow up knowing the rules, the code of silence, the way things have gone for decades, if not centuries.Someone might well decide that *he* wants to be the big gun, and most of the people working for the dragon would still have no idea where the information they pass upwards goes exactly.  A noble who occupies a key position and funnels information and resources more directly to the dragon would be *ideally* suited to seizing control of the network (and becoming the new place where the information and gold moving up the pyramid stops) if something where to happen to the dragon.Sounds like an adventure plot!  If the noble not only has the stones to move against a dragon, but the resources to actually pose a credible threat, more power to him!Some disposable adventurers are promised the sun, the moon and the shining stars by this noble, who wants only to rescue his poor oppressed people from this cruel monsters depredations and demands of tribute.  Oh, the horror!  Can you save us, brave adventurers?  If the adventurers seem to be able to do the job, the noble steps in and takes total control of the network, which is really no different than the sort of extortion / protection-racket which exemplified the feudal systems lord / serf relationship.  Woot for the noble, while the lower classes think, 'meet the new boss, same as the old boss' *completely unaware* that the dragon-killing adventurers just 'saved them' from anything, since nothing in their day to day lives improves one bit.If the adventurers don't seem up to the task, the noble can alert some of the many other resources controlled by the dragon, and the dragon himself, of the impending threat, and so further ingratiate himself to his 'boss.'"Yes great one, the mercenary thugs offered their services to me, saying that they had heard of signs that a dragon preyed on our lands.  What do you wish me to tell them?  Shall I agree upon their price and 'hire' them, sending them into a trap, or do you wish for me to attempt to deceive them and instruct them that the tales are but a myth, that no dragon has been sighted in these lands since my grandfathers day?"Either path is supremely dangerous.  If the dragon suspects betrayal, and survives the adventurers attack, the noble will indeed finally have to live in the fear spoken of above, as he has betrayed the benefactor who made his family's fortune in the first place!</blockquote>

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