A Sword Without a Hilt: A Song of Ice and Fire/D&D 3.5 Crossover
- Thread starter DragonParadox
- Start date
-
- Tags
- a song of ice and fire a sword without a hilt d&d 3.5 dungeons & dragons 100% high octane dragon fuel ave corvidae battle action dragon diplomacy best sister bureaucromancy delicious soul-stuff dragon dreams come true dragon ta'veren greatest uncle hubris is a coward's word in defiance of gods and men mammon's folly mutually assured mage's disjunction qm murderhobo top tier coatl
MasterDrakus
DEUS SOL
- Location
- Minas Gerais, Brazil
No, you are waaaay crazier after all they aren't making charts and researching real life politics in order to make documents.Do I sound just as crazy when talking about this quest with others?
egoo
Totally Not Creating Problems Where None Existed
- Location
- Russia
Wow.
Rude.
- Location
- Mexico
A dying, likely delirious Vol'jin
My Hope for the Next expansion is Jaina gets tired of all this shit, steals Kel'Thuzad Phylactery (because the kirin Tor never destroys anything), and together they bring him back.Now, Arthas was someone who got shit done. Too bad, Merging with Ner'zhul fucked him up and his entire style of doing things.
Stratholme was the reason i respect Arthas so much, the choice was between killing an entire city, or letting them die anyway, and then return as an undead army.
His allies betraying him after what had to be the hardest decision in life is whats to blame for his fall.
Last edited:
MasterDrakus
DEUS SOL
- Location
- Minas Gerais, Brazil
Seriously? It was meant as a joke, I thought that the aaaaa in way would enunciate the fact that it wants a serious comment.
- Location
- Philippines
Ah, but that is why this piece is named by the "artist" "Tywin Lannister Shits Gold." He wanted to use real gold at the "bottom" part, but I felt it's too lewd.
egoo
Totally Not Creating Problems Where None Existed
- Location
- Russia
A dying, delirious Vol'Jin, who likely was hearing not the Loa but the Old Gods.
Who could've guessed, that making Sylvanas the leader of the Horde would put Horde in an all-out war against Alliance.
One that will weaken both sides.
And result in a little, totally unimportant thing like a world tree getting burned down.
I mean... I'm not saying it was Old gods...
But it was Old Gods.
And I thought my reply conveyed me understanding the joke and going along with it. Apparently, not so much. Sorry, I guess?
MasterDrakus
DEUS SOL
- Location
- Minas Gerais, Brazil
Not your fault, the lack of tone or body movement in the internet makes distinguishing jokes from serious comments hard, it happens sometimes.
tarrangar
Fat arctic chicken
Stratholme was stupid, he should have just have everyone in town grab weapons and meet him outside of town, then divided them up so they weren't with family, and told them to kill anyone who turned undead immediately, the plague only produce zombies, unless it has good base material, so 5 peasants can easily kill 1 zombie, and the plague isn't synchronized, so they would be turning one by one, meaning they could easily be mobbed and killed, it would have been traumatizing and everything, but it would have worked, and wouldn't have alienated Jaina and Uther.Now, Arthas was someone who got shit done. Too bad, Merging with Ner'zhul fucked him up and his entire style of doing things.
Stratholme was a stupid decision, that's a medieval town not a modern one, and the plague only take a few days to turn people into zombies, most people don't shop all that often, and shops don't get shipments of grains every day, so while Stratholme was definitely infected, everyone in the city wasn't infected, it was only something like one in 10, and you can typically though not always see that someone is infected before they turn, so what Arthas should have done, is get everyone to gather outside the city, isolate all who were obviously sick in one area, and have the rest spend a day or 2 sleeping in shifts and keeping watch over each other, it's a slower method, but it mean you only have to kill maybe 20% of the people instead of everyone.
Arthas just assumed that everyone must have eaten the infested grain, he didn't think to do any checking before he started the purge.
Last edited:
egoo
Totally Not Creating Problems Where None Existed
- Location
- Russia
To be fair, you're forgetting the fact that it wasn't only the infected grain that was in play there -
Mal'ganis himself, along with a shitton of cultists, who spread the grains were there and actively making sure there would be no survivors.
And in megapolis with such high polulation density as Stratholme (as it's described in lore), they wouldn't have needed even a day to turn half of people in city into undead.
My critique of Artas' actions mostly goes to the way he went out of his way to make sure he'll have no allies in this fight, alienating both Uther and Jaina, not explaining shit and throwing his rank around.
Last edited:
- Location
- United States
Just realized we can totally enchant obsidian beyond breaking point, perhaps without needing the hardening chamber. There's already an IC example of an obsidian sword.
Valyrian Steel --> Fire Steel --> Enchanted Dragonglass --> Regular Dragonglass
We need to send raiding parties into old First Men tombs, we'd probably find plenty of examples like this. It's probably going to be one of the cheaper options available to us, and should let us properly arm whatever champions happen to pop up in the Watch.
Valyrian Steel --> Fire Steel --> Enchanted Dragonglass --> Regular Dragonglass
Last edited:
- Location
- Germany
Still better then my research for the Inquisition.
My browsing history was a back to back of terms like "Spanish Inquisition", "Gestapo", "Stasi", "NKWD", etc.
tarrangar
Fat arctic chicken
Arthas knew about neither the cultists nor Mal'Ganis when he declared the purge, just because it turned out that there was more to it than just infested grain, don't change the fact that Arthas declared the purge based solely on infested grain.
And that's why he lost Uther and Jaina, if he had tried to do quarantine while that still looked doable, then they would have stayed because that was a reasonable way to do things, and then when Mal'Ganis and the cultists turned up, that would be when extreme actions like the purge became reasonable.
Arthas reaction have to be judged based on the information he had at the time, and with that information his reaction was way over the top.
- Location
- Mexico
Stratholme wasnt a town, It was a city likely one of the 5 largest cities in the world at the time (behind lordaeron, ironforge, zandalar and suramar). 20 percent of the population infected? Thats generous, 4 peasant, including women and children against 1 undead? Very generous, no casualties there? Ridiculous. You are risking half a continent to save at most, one third of a city.
And those people Who died? You didnt sacrifice their lives, you doomed their souls, It takes a Naaru to save even one soul from the plague, they are now Lost to the light.
MasterDrakus
DEUS SOL
- Location
- Minas Gerais, Brazil
...Mine has the same stuff but I got no excuse...
- Location
- Mexico
We still need that "ominous" rating.
tarrangar
Fat arctic chicken
The Town was me trying to make a comparison to what Arthas did, not me describing Stratholme, and undeads made by the Plague isn't that strong, they can be crafted into something stronger by the Scourge, but at their basic, an undead turned by the plague, isn't stronger than they were in life.
And it wouldn't be 4 peasants against 1 undead, the turning isn't synchronized, it happens piecemeal, so if 20% of the population is infested, then maybe 1% will turn each hour, that mean it's 1 weak undead against at least 10 peasants, and the plague isn't transferred that easily, you can be infested from an undead, but it's far from a sure thing, and don't happen with the smallest scratch or bite.
It would be hard, there would be casualties, but in the end a significant percentage of the town would survive, and Lordaeron needed all the live citizen it could get, so quarantine is still the right option in my opinion.
And I don't believe the whole it takes a Naaru, that's going against some Plagueland quests, where you get a Vial that releases the soul of undeads you kill, what it took a Naaru to do, was claiming his soul immediately, Sylvanas is going to that dark place because the Light don't want her, not because a competent priest can't allow it to claim her after her body is destroyed.
Last edited:
egoo
Totally Not Creating Problems Where None Existed
- Location
- Russia
Undead randomly appearing all around in super-densly-populated city is hell.
Guards? Shit, no, they won't be able to react to everything at once.
And scourge undead as described in-lore are far, far more capable than normal people. If only because they don't have to care about their bodies when fighting, they don't feel tired and can't die to "normal" wounds and/or bleeding out.
Also, you totally didn't consder what this hellish situation will do to Stratholm citizens.
5 people against 1 undead? 10?
Hell no, they'll be running the fuck away in fear and cowering.
Even trained soldiers are scared as fuck of even the weakest undead.
Not to mention, that these civillians didn't have any weapons/armor.
Enter, Mal'ganis.
Teleporting, Fel and Undeath-spewing killing machine, specifically going for any pockets of resistance, breaking them with overwhelming force.
Containing the city would've only allowed him to create a truly astonishing army of undead.
Artas acted based on several points, I believe:
1) These undead are a total nightmare to fight, even trained warriors can be easily overwhelmed in numbers.
2) Turning rate is 100% percent, if slower/faster sometimes.
3) The city has this grain inside and, to his knowledge, had it for days.
Everyone in Stratholme were dead to him and only waiting to come back as enemies to al lliving.
The fact that he didn't give any of confirmed facts to his allies, instead trowing a princey-fit and losing both most elite soldiers of Lordaeron and mages...
That's why he's a moron.
Part MCML: Battles of the Spirit
Battles of the Spirit
Eighteenth Day of the Second Month 293 AC
Truth will serve here more than any clever deflection, you decide, so you lay out the whole sorry tale, or at least as much of it as you yourself know: how Rina, once a Sister of Silence, came under the thrall of the Others after dying in the frozen waters of the White Knife and being deceived into returning to life as a twisted mockery of her former self, bound more surely to the dark power in the North than the most wretched of slaves in the cities of the east. You describe in few words the slaughterhouse you had found the Sept of the Snows to be and the presence of the thing she called the Mockery, coming at last to the final confrontation atop the bell tower where twisted form and shape led magic lashed at you even as Rina herself begged you to save her from the nightmare of her existence, and so you had done...
"So she talked through her whole story while you fought?" the Lord Commander asks, surprised, and little wonder for such would have been a foolish risk to take.
"You misunderstand, I did not merely see her granted the peace of death, but through the blessing of the Old Gods, the life which had been stolen from her. We captured her and brought her beneath the eyes of the Heart Tree in the Deep. There through sacrifice of certain enchanted treasures, winter's power over her was broken. Yet as a cup once filled with water will remain so even if it is wrested free from the hand that poured it, so too did she keep the gift of sorcery that was bestowed upon her in this second life."
"Not many are the men I would believe such a tale from," the Old Bear says after a moment's tense silence. "Yet you I count among that number, Your Grace."
You nod, accepting the gruff compliment in the spirit it was given. His next words, however, are in a far graver tone. "Was it a kindness truly to let her live with the weight of what she has done? I've known men who killed friends in the grip of drink, or lost in rage, and often they are broken by it. To know that so many were given such a gruesome fate by her hand must weigh heavily upon the poor woman's soul."
"I do not know what the next world may hold for all I have helped open the door back. Perhaps her woes would have been taken from her by some kindly god, or perhaps the regrets would have broken her as she found herself unable to strike back against the dark power that shackled her will. I can tell you only what I might have chosen in her place and that is to fight. That we must all do, not only when Night finally comes but in all the days that lead up to it, for our foe has shown that it does not slumber while we grow and prepare."
"Fair words to live by," the old man sighs, resolute as ever in his duty. "Ser Alliser has agreed to travel south among those among our brothers, thirty in all, who are to learn magic under the tutelage of your... bannermen."
"My friends, rather," you say, noticing the hesitation. "They have no banners to call in times of strife, yet for all that each holds no small power in his or her own right."
As though called by the sound of his name a knock on the solar door announces the Watch's Master-at-Arms, in a state that would not be out of place at court as opposed to the sweat-staled wind-swept figure you had anticipated. He obviously did not wish to make a poor impression.
"Your Grace, the men are as ready as they will ever be to take ship, or travel by other ways if you so desire," he says. Strange how respect can be a mark of trouble to come. Alliser Thorne had been among those who most readily called you king, loyalists who choose the black over the executioner's blade. You could easily see him offering to break one vow that he may uphold another older allegiance, yet to refuse him would be an insult not only to him but to the Watch.
"Excellent," you reply. "Before we depart, however, I would wish to present another notion that might aid in your vigil, a touchstone that would grant protection against the cold for those who hold vigil at the top of the Wall."
"As long as it can take hard wear," Ser Alliser snorts. "You would not believe what... the men can break." He obviously would have used harsher language out of the presence of the Lord Commander.
"Of course," you agree. Perhaps the notion of a dragon statue carved from gleaming dragonstone might seem a tad excessive, but there is a time and a place for even forceful reminders, not only to the men of the Watch but also for any lords who may come a calling, such as the Warden of the North.
For his part the Lord Commander knows of and readily agrees to host the meeting, suggesting a retinue of no more than three companions for both of sides and a relatively public meeting to prevent, or at least lessen, talk of conspiracy. Rather than take up more of his time asking for rumors and tales you take your leave besides the Master-at-Arms, the better to get his measure.
What do you discuss with Ser Alliser Thorne?
[] His time in your father's court
[] The current troubles and hurdles of the Watch
[] What manner of sorcery he would wish to study
[] Write in
OOC: Though Viserys knows enough planar cosmology to guess what would have happened to Rina's soul had she been freed from the Others' grasp, that is not really a conversation that would have had its place here, so I added a bit of a half-truth there.
Last edited:
DocMatoi
Theoretical Lover of Girls
- Location
- within 2 hours of the White House
- Pronouns
- They/Them
This... Actually worries me. This guy was one of Crazy Dad's courtiers, and he was still a loyalist? What, exactly, is he expecting of us? He SAW what Aerys was like.
Last edited:
- Location
- Brazil
[X] What manner of sorcery he would wish to study
Rather important to know, eh? We can talk about the hurdles with LC or Aemon later.