Narrative Control

7th-level Marketing & Optics

Casting Time: 1 action, cast before a known negative event becomes public rather than after (see Crisis Management for the reactive version)
Range/Area: Unlimited
Components: V, S, M (an exclusive story, offered to a friendly outlet ahead of the news it’s meant to blunt; an embargo agreement, consumed)
Duration: Until the embargoed event breaks independently, or 1 week, whichever is shorter
Classes: CMO, Communications Lead, CEO

Choose one event you know is likely to become public and unfavorable to your organization within the duration. You control which outlet, and in what framing, the event is first reported. For the duration, any creature attempting to establish an independent account of what happened has disadvantage on the Discovery saving throw, for as long as your version remains the only one in circulation.

This spell has no effect once the event has already become public through a source you don’t control; at that point, only Crisis Management can be cast against it.

At Higher Levels. When cast using a spell slot of 8th level or higher, you may cast this spell as part of the same action as Crisis Management targeting the same event, gaining the benefits of both without needing to cast Crisis Management within 24 hours of the event as its casting time normally requires.

Flavor: “We wanted to get ahead of this story and make sure the full context was represented accurately.” — background quote, granted to one reporter, thirty minutes before the story broke everywhere else