Conceal self [1290]

Olympia: The Age of Gods PBEM (Oct 4 2000)

### E.3.12: Conceal self [1290]

      Usage:  USE 1290 <flag>
      Time to learn: 28 days.
      Time to use: 3 days.
      Time to practice: 7 days.
      Cost to practice: 35 gold.

This skill allows a character to conceal itself from view. When activiated, other characters will not see the unit in their location reports, and will not see the unit come and go. The unit will also be invisible to garrisons, and so may enter a province where it would be turned away if visible. Note that the unit is still prevented from sneaking into a city or smaller sublocation (e.g., a tower).

The unit must be alone in order to conceal itself. It may not be stacked with any other characters, or possess any visible followers, such as peasants, soldiers, workers, etc. It may also not be the first character inside a sublocation, building or ship. The owners of these small locations are always visible.

Hiding takes three days to accomplish. However, turning off concealment takes zero time.

Use of the skill will set whether or not the unit is trying to hide from view:

      	use 1290 1	# Hide from view, takes three days
      	use 1290 0	# Don't conceal self from view, zero days

Note that attempts to gain entrance to buildings or ships with the MOVE order will subject to the unit to the ADMIT system. A failure to gain entrance with MOVE will give the unit away to the structure's owner.

Concealment does not hide noticeable actions such as attacking another unit, digging up a body, etc. Other than movement, actions which would generate a message in the location log will still generate a message.

Hidden nobles may be spotted by other nobles using the SEEK command. Nobles using SEEK to look for a particular noble have a base chance of 50% per day of finding the noble. Nobles using SEEK without a particular target have a 25% chance per day of spotting any hidden noble.

For each level of skill a noble has in 1290, the chance to discover that noble through SEEK is reduced by 5% if the noble is specifically being sought, and by 2.5% if the search is general. The chance to spot a noble is improved if the seeker has the skill [1901] Spot Hidden Noble.