A Sword Without a Hilt: A Song of Ice and Fire/D&D 3.5 Crossover

TotallyNotEvil · Mar 16, 2019

@Goldfish i wouldn't give them hardness, but DR. Likely 10/Adamantine.

Crake · Mar 16, 2019

zxzx24 said:
@Azel hardened adamantine tips for the bolts? Help get through hardness/Dr?

If we are sending them out...

They wouldn't be able to do any structural damage even if they were penetrative to ship hulls that dense.

Goldfish · Mar 16, 2019

Azel said:
Yeah, that's the idea. Which is why I wholeheartedly endorse @Goldfish plan to crank up the production of explosives.

As it stands, the Wyverns should target the main weapons of the Arrows with a salvo of Drone Bombs to neuter as many of them as possible, then make passes and unload Explosive Packs on critical components and weakly armored areas of the Doomship. Ballista bolts would be a weapon of last resort against man-sized targets.

Sweet. I want 50 for recreational purposes.

I've got 30 on next month's crafting schedule.

Goldfish · Mar 16, 2019

TotallyNotEvil said:
@Goldfish i wouldn't give them hardness, but DR. Likely 10/Adamantine.

Why? If they're crafted from steel that's gone through the Hardening Chamber, they'll have a Hardness of 15 by default. Hardness isn't always better than Damage Reduction, but in this case I think it would be warranted.

Azel · Mar 16, 2019

For hardened targets, we could start developing a heavy fighter after noticing the penetration problem. I was thinking about something with two steam cannons. Would be pretty pricey, but it would be something that can do appreciable damage against capital vessels.

egoo · Mar 16, 2019

Crake said:
They wouldn't be able to do any structural damage even if they were penetrative to ship hulls that dense.

@Goldfish, we can make Hydra Bloodpoison dirt-cheap via setting up a fungal pod or two, and probably have it coalesced/dispersed into an inhaleable form as per Alchemist's ability easily.
An action from Tyene to make up the process at most.

@Azel, would that kind of payload for darts work well?
Piercing though the hull with adamantine tip, and dispersing the gas within the bolt (a simple enough mechanism, I think, like a syringe really)?

Crake · Mar 16, 2019

Azel said:
For hardened targets, we could start developing a heavy fighter after noticing the penetration problem. I was thinking about something with two steam cannons. Would be pretty pricey, but it would be something that can do appreciable damage against capital vessels.

I'm for it. Manticore Gunships!

Crake · Mar 16, 2019

egoo said:
@Goldfish, we can make Hydra Bloodpoison dirt-cheap via setting up a fungal pod or two, and probably have it coalesced/dispersed into an inhaleable form as per Alchemist's ability easily.
An action from Tyene to make up the process at most.

@Azel, would that kind of payload for darts work well?
Piercing though the hull with adamantine tip, and dispersing the gas within the bolt (a simple enough mechanism, I think, like a syringe really)?

You would get mixed results, but that seems like a good idea as alternative ammunition regardless. I would use it against buildings instead of ships, though.

TotallyNotEvil · Mar 16, 2019

Goldfish said:
Why? If they're crafted from steel that's gone through the Hardening Chamber, they'll have a Hardness of 15 by default. Hardness isn't always better than Damage Reduction, but in this case I think it would be warranted.

Because that's how the system rolls. Stone golems don't have the hardness of stone anymore more than clay golems have clay hardness, or iron golems iron hardness.

Hardness is something else.

Hardness 15 is wildly excessive. I'd honestly put them at DR 5 tbh.

Deliste · Mar 16, 2019

Goldfish said:
I imagine Mia might get something of a reputation among the sorts of folks the Inquisition frequently deals with due to a disturbing propensity to drop Invisible Chokers on people. These little beasties are only CR 2, but add +4 Strength & Constitution and +2 Dexterity and Wisdom and they get a good bit more dangerous, especially to spellcasters.

And they're ugly as fuck, so there's the added horror factor once it becomes visible after making the initial attack.

Or a Musteval spamming Magic Missile from underground, with the extra duration she can just sit back and win skirmishes of attrition.

Goldfish · Mar 16, 2019

Goldfish said:
I've got 30 on next month's crafting schedule.

Actually, 30 of them might be a bit overboard right now, @Azel. At 20 pounds of Explosive Packs each, that's 600 pounds worth. We're only producing 900 pounds this month, though our production will increase to 1800 pounds next month.

We also have 204 pounds from Alchemy production prior to this month.

Hmm, I guess that would still leave us with 504 pounds of the stuff even if we did make 30 Beetle Bombs. Thoughts?

Goldfish · Mar 16, 2019

TotallyNotEvil said:
Because that's how the system rolls. Stone golems don't have the hardness of stone anymore more than clay golems have clay hardness, or iron golems iron hardness.

Hardness is something else.

Hardness 15 is wildly excessive. I'd honestly put them at DR 5 tbh.

I'll reduce it to DR 10/Adamantine. These things are basically big, barely mobile hunks of bug-shaped armor with a cargo compartment.

TotallyNotEvil · Mar 16, 2019

Goldfish said:
I'll reduce it to DR 10/Adamantine. These things are basically big, barely mobile hunks of bug-shaped armor with a cargo compartment.

Them being mobile, if barely, makes all the difference

Azel · Mar 16, 2019

egoo said:
@Goldfish, we can make Hydra Bloodpoison dirt-cheap via setting up a fungal pod or two, and probably have it coalesced/dispersed into an inhaleable form as per Alchemist's ability easily.
An action from Tyene to make up the process at most.

@Azel, would that kind of payload for darts work well?
Piercing though the hull with adamantine tip, and dispersing the gas within the bolt (a simple enough mechanism, I think, like a syringe really)?

That's better suited for artillery shells to be used against exposed targets like infantry formations. There it's absolutely deadly, but in a building or combat craft, you won't reach that much crew and for all you know, the thing stops somewhere in a storage room where the poison won't bother anyone. Against enemy capital vessel, you would use explosives all the way to dismantle important machinery.

Take the Moonchaser for example. If you can rupture a pipe from the heat distribution cycle, you can knock out part of the cannons for a moment because the piping looses pressure before switching to a backup line. Hit enough lines and the batteries go completely silent.

However, the Launchers lack the penetration to pull this off. Against centimeter thick armor plating, we want steam cannons.

Also, I'm quite happy to see that my predictions have come true and that DP is making sure our fancy toys aren't the only ones around. This kind of bullshit here, this is how war between High Magic Empires should look like. Not hiring a lvl 15 party of random loonies to win the war single-handedly.

Goldfish said:
Actually, 30 of them might be a bit overboard right now, @Azel. At 20 pounds of Explosive Packs each, that's 600 pounds worth. We're only producing 900 pounds this month, though our production will increase to 1800 pounds next month.

We also have 204 pounds from Alchemy production prior to this month.

Hmm, I guess that would still leave us with 504 pounds of the stuff even if we did make 30 Beetle Bombs. Thoughts?

That's why I wanted to stress swappable payloads. For this, the deployment against the Doomship, I would go all out and give them a full load-out of Explosive Packs. Doesn't matter on the beetle production though. Make as many as you think prudent.

We can load up any left-overs with Alchemist Fire or Liquid Ice. Come to think of, coordinated fire with Alchemist Fire and Liquid Ice payloads could do nasty things to armor plating.

Goldfish · Mar 16, 2019

Azel said:
That's better suited for artillery shells to be used against exposed targets like infantry formations. There it's absolutely deadly, but in a building or combat craft, you won't reach that much crew and for all you know, the thing stops somewhere in a storage room where the poison won't bother anyone. Against enemy capital vessel, you would use explosives all the way to dismantle important machinery.

Take the Moonchaser for example. If you can rupture a pipe from the heat distribution cycle, you can knock out part of the cannons for a moment because the piping looses pressure before switching to a backup line. Hit enough lines and the batteries go completely silent.

However, the Launchers lack the penetration to pull this off. Against centimeter thick armor plating, we want steam cannons.

Also, I'm quite happy to see that my predictions have come true and that DP is making sure our fancy toys aren't the only ones around. This kind of bullshit here, this is how war between High Magic Empires should look like. Not hiring a lvl 15 party of random loonies to win the war single-handedly.

That's why I wanted to stress swappable payloads. For this, the deployment against the Doomship, I would go all out and give them a full load-out of Explosive Packs. Doesn't matter on the beetle production though. Make as many as you think prudent.

We can load up any left-overs with Alchemist Fire or Liquid Ice. Come to think of, coordinated fire with Alchemist Fire and Liquid Ice payloads could do nasty things to armor plating.

Speaking of Liquid Ice, we're scheduled to complete 2,250 units of the stuff this month. That's 4,500 pounds.

We need to get DP to give us the damage and AoE from 98 pounds of this stuff in a canister with an Explosive Pack.

Azel · Mar 16, 2019

Goldfish said:
Speaking of Liquid Ice, we're scheduled to complete 2,250 units of the stuff this month. That's 4,500 pounds.

We need to get DP to give us the damage and AoE from 98 pounds of this stuff in a canister with an Explosive Pack.

I think I would offload most of that to the Salamanders. We did promise them large loads of it and they can get a lot of mileage out of it.

Goldfish · Mar 16, 2019

Azel said:
I think I would offload most of that to the Salamanders. We did promise them large loads of it and they can get a lot of mileage out of it.

We can give them 3,000 pounds of the stuff, but keep 1,500 for ourselves for special munitions.

Even being really conservative, a 10 pounds Liquid Ice canister fired from a Launcher should inflict at least 3d6 Cold damage on the target and 3 Cold damage to everything within a 15 feet radius. Since just about everything native to the Plane of Fire has the Fire subtype and suffers +50% damage from Cold, these would make good special ammo for the Wyverns when operating there.

We also have 100 of @Deliste's Sultan's Tribute which we can use as Launcher ammo or for bombing.

Sultan's Tribute

A sphere of deep red clay interspersed with burnt-brown particulates of Brown Mold, surrounding an inscribed metal core and embossed with a thumb sized portrait of a Dragon.
When depressed the Dragon Grins and the core is activated.

Effect:
When activated the core produces a Heat Metal effect causing the Brown Mold to grow until the duration has run it's course with a one round grace period for the user, doubling round by round thereafter from 5ft to an 80ft spread.

Duesal · Mar 16, 2019

That took way too long... Anyway, @Azel, Bloodraven intel with more urgent bits of intel marked in red.

BLOODRAVEN INTEL

1. Cersei and Jaime have been cuckolding Robert, none of the "royal children" are true Baratheons, and Varys has been actively covering for them so they don't get revealed at a time inconvenient to his plans. Also, Robert himself has been protected by Varys because Cersei wants to kill him and isn't smart enough to realize how dumb the idea is.

DragonParadox said:
"It seems, Your Grace, that even as the Baratheons have usurped the throne by the sword, the Lannisters did so in the bedroom, for all the 'Crowned Stag's' heirs were sired by the Kingslayer."

"The Kingslayer... the queen's brother?" Dany asks, shocked.

Every inch the Lannister... that is what you had thought of the royal children. It seems they had earned it fairly by being Lannister twice over. Thoughts fly through your mind like a flock of startled birds, satisfaction, calculation, even pity for the false prince and princess, even for the Kingslayer himself, to whom you are indebted for ending your father's life ere he could fulfill his final monstrous ambition.

"With Varys gone would any of his agents think to share this secret?" you ask urgently. Such an announcement could throw Westeros into chaos, drive the lords to rebellion ahead of any plan of yours.

"No... I do not think so," Brynden Rivers answers slowly. "The plans of the dark powers are no more ripe than yours... but the Spider was chief among those keeping Robert from being slain by his wife, who possesses both the tools and the will for the deed. You might need your own presence in King's Landing to... keep him safe."

Only now do you appreciate in full the reason he had laughed, though the jest is a touch bitter for your taste.

DragonParadox said:
"We are going to have to make sure he does not find the Queen and the Kingslayer in a compromised position during that time, too," Dany points out. Shaking her head and looking up at the roots slipping through the cavern roof she adds: "What in the world were they thinking? If they didn't care about the Seven Kingdoms then surely they must at least care about the risks they are exposing their family, their children to."

"I might spend hours trying to explain the roots of such folly, Highness," the old sorcerer replies. "However, I believe the simplest answer works best—they weren't thinking at all. "

"I don't suppose the Spider knew if the Queen has given anymore thought to what she would do if she were to kill her husband?" you ask without much hope.

"Alas, the Spider does not have any greater impression of Cersei Baratheon's wit than the rest of us," comes the expected reply. "His best guess would be preparing for a long regency with either the Queen or Kevan Lannister as regent for the boy Joffrey. The flaws in that reasoning speak for themselves, do they not?"

"A woman and a witch-wrangler. Aye, that will make the lords and smallfolk cheer alright," Vee snorts. "I'd make a better schemer than her, and I can barely stand to be around that shit for more then half-an-hour."

2. Varys sought to raise the Faith against us.

DragonParadox said:
He offers a jerky nod in response, the closest to reciprocating his ruined body can manage. "I suppose the best place to start with would be the Faith. Varys wished to kindle in them the spirit of fanaticism and unity, to make of them the rock upon which you would break, slain by their champions, your Legions rounded by hordes of fanatics which even Maegor's fury could not tame. He has agents in place in Highgarden, some enchanted, others willing, who might sabotage the conclave in such a way as to implicate you..."

3. The Lord and Heir of House Florent are devil cultists who are actively working to implicate us in exchange for control of the Reach. The rest of the House is vaguely aware of fishy activity but they have not sworn to any dark powers.

DragonParadox said:
"Who are these agents and how would they seek to implicate me?" you ask intently.

"Of the willing the highest born and most powerful is Ser Alester Florent, who took devils' coin without thought in his bitterness over the Tyrell 'yoke'. He seeks what the Florents had always sought, of course..."

"The Reach," you nod. "Is the whole house lost to the lure of devils, then?" That would be exceedingly ill-fortuned given that Stannis's wife is of that line.

"No, it stops at the lord and his heir," Bloodraven answers. "Others may know of treachery and unexpected wealth, but they have sworn no pacts with Hell.

4. Garth Tyrell, called Garth the Gross, Lord Seneschal of Highgarden, is being possessed by a Brachina. He was meant to implicate us at the Conclave of the Faith by staging an attack with fake Darkenbeasts, and then flee with a very obvious trail to Sorcerer's Deep.

DragonParadox said:
Garth Tyrell, called Garth the Gross, does know of the dark pacts and foul magics, but he is in no position to do give warning, for he is in the thrall of a Brachina posing as his latest mistress."

"Garth the Gross... that would be the Lord Seneschal of Highgarden, then?" Dany asks. At your surprised looks she explains: "Mother has been helping me learn the names and places of all the great lords and ladies."

"A wise thought," Bloodraven interjects. "The more I watch Rhaella stretch her wings the more a pity it seems to me that she was born in Aerys's shadow."

Unconsciously you bristle at the implication that your mother had been less worthy in his eyes before, but you reign the impulse in. This too is part of the candor he has promised. "How do the plotters aim to ruin the conclave?" you ask instead.

Bloodraven goes on to explain how Varys had recovered part of the remains of a Darkenbeast which had perished in a training accident in Myr, and how the artificers of the Golden Company had been set to creating some semblance of one. Though these beasts are wretched things with lives measured in weeks and needing to be puppeted with the use of a talisman in the absence of the guiding spirit the Old Gods provide. Alas that they would still serve to frame you for the death of the head of the delegation of traditionalist septons, making of him a martyr. Garth would later be found to have vanished from his room with signs pointing to fleeing Sorcerer's Deep.

5. Varys was trying to raise up the Faith Militant in the Vale, and while it is slow, they have the Chosen of the Smith and the Crone with them. Currently they're doing something with the Arryn fey!baby, though neither Bloodraven or Varys could figure it out.

DragonParadox said:
"In the Vale the agents of Mammon seek above all else to gather converts, though they have also happened upon a conspiracy of 'pious' lords who yearn for the return of the Faith Militant and seek to use them to stir up unrest, first against my own pawns among the Mountain Clans and then against the North," comes the slow unexpected reply. "That plan, however, is far indeed from fruition, for though these lords may be fools they are not wrong in claiming the favor of the Seven. The Chosen of the Smith and the Crone aid them."

"In doing what?" Dany asks, intrigued.

"Something to do with the Arryn heir is all I have been able to find out. The servants of the Seven can unfortunately learn discretion. The oddest part of the whole matter is that not even the Spider knows whence little Robert Arryn sprang. I can provide you with the names of the lords both I and Varys suspect as well as those of the Chosen..." He lapses into another thoughtful silence. "I suggest you capture but do not kill them. It would be interesting to see if the Seven must withdraw all their gifts from one of their Champions to make another or simply raise their hands from them."

6. Varys has been working on driving a wedge between the Martells and the Yronwoods, so we should probably talk to the Yronwood dude while he's here. It doesn't hurt to at least get his measure. Also, news of Elia and Rhaenys' resurrection is very likely to become known to the Lannisters soon.

DragonParadox said:
"As you think best," Bloodraven answers, tone carefully neutral, likely counting it wasted effort. Then he shakes his head. "Lastly there is Dorne, the kingdom where reform of the Faith in a way that is pleasing to Your Grace would be easiest to achieve. Here there was no true effort to agitate the faithful, only use traditional rivalries between the Yronwoods as a wedge. Alas, though the conspirators are few and scattered here, Varys's efforts to bolster that presence did reveal one damning secret, the presence of Princess Elia and her daughter Rhaenys returned from death. I fear that as the Spider's web frays that knowledge may fall into the lap of the Lannisters."

Unwelcome though the news may be it is not wholly unexpected. At the very least it is time to send Doran some discreet guards to add to his own roster, or else you could extend again the invitation to stay as your guests in Dragon's Roost for a time. Dorne would only be an incantation away, after all.

7. Varys intended to frame Amrelath for the assassination of the Sealord, driving a wedge between us and Braavos. Also, he was the one behind a select few Braavosi moving against us. We mostly solved that, though.

DragonParadox said:
"So he must have had a fair guess we were responsible, then," Dany interjected. "What was he doing in Braavos?"

"Mostly laying a trap," Bloodraven picks up his tale. "He reasoned that if you could track him somehow you would come for him soon, and that a public square in a city you wished to keep as an ally would be the best place to limit your use of the more destructive battle spells. If you had left him to his business he would have tried to assassinate the Sealord..."

"Framing me again?" you sigh. As a distraction and a desperation move it did not seem wholly ill-conceived, but still one you would have expected.

"No, the other crimson wyrm in your service, the one you sent east. He would have killed the Sealord and most of the court 'proclaiming his rightful lordship over the city in the name of King Viserys' before being driven off by the mages of Braavos and the Sealord's guard..."

"And the fact that the supposed culprit would have been halfway across the world would not have entered into it?" you shake your head at the audacity of the plan.

"You have quite credibly shown that to be of little importance in your movements. Who is to say that all 'sorcerers skilled enough to take on the form of a dragon' do not share that power?"

"Are they still saying that?" Vee laughs. "What the hells is so hard to believe about a dragon that's just as smart as a man without having ever been one?"

"The implication that humanity may not be the pinnacle of all that lives. It is a difficult thing to wrap one's mind around for those born outside the wild places of the world where that fact is manifest in every shadow and beast's call."

Vee nods in understanding and somewhat startled appreciation for Bloodraven taking the time to answer so deeply.

"Did Varys have any agents in Braavos that we should worry about?" you continue.

"Informants only, eyes not hands, at least since you have dismantled the cabal of malcontents he helped foster," comes the not altogether surprising reply. They had seemed unusually bold to be the fruits of simple internecine Braavosi politics. You had put down the incongruity to the strain of a changing world, but an outside instigator certainly accounted for it just as well.

8. The Champion of the Smith is currently in the Vale forging what looks like Dragonbane weapons in preparation for fighting us. It's not clear what the Champion of the Crone is doing, but she was previously a woods witch who was spared from death on the condition of service to the Seven.

DragonParadox said:
"I might almost pity him were it not for all the harm he has done," she snorts. "What can you tell us of the Champions of the Smith and the Crone?"

"The first is a boy and uncertain of his path where he does not hold a hammer in hand before the forge," the Last Greenseer replies. "He forges 'holy arms' for the renegade lords, many of them supposedly with the virtue to slay a dragon, and from what I have glimpsed of them they will indeed cut deeper than common steel, but nowhere near enough to prove a threat to you and yours, Your Grace, even if the knights were to be suddenly be given wings. The Crone's champion is an old Woods Witch granted a vision as she lay dying, given the choice to serve rather than perish. Be wary, for she welds magic and miracles both and is all the more crafty for it..."

"So the Seven are using Tiamat's tactics to recruit," you say coldly, struggling to keep the worst of the anger from your words.

9. The Chosen of the Father, Lucan, was recently at Crakehall and worked with the Golden Shields to throw back a Deep Ones incursion. He called down angels for the task (see Rumors post). It seems likely, however, that the Lannisters might just make their own splinter of the Faith rather than relying on the Chosen of the Father.

DragonParadox said:
"What of the Father's Chosen, him who it is said gathers mages for a 'righteous cause'?"

"He is dealing with a Deep One infestation in Crakehall and in that I wish him success not only for the ruin of the foe he faces, but because victory will embolden him." The roots creak slightly as Bloodraven shifts in his nest of roots. "It would be most convenient for him to come to blows with the Golden Shields and the matter to spill over into Casterly Rock's uneasy alliance with the High Septon and the Most Devout. At the very least that would further fray the bonds of trust between the Chosen and the hierarchy, at best it will see the Lannisters work to create their own splinter of the Faith whose allegiance they can trust unreservedly."

10. Bloodraven's splinters of the Faith include: a faction that preaches that Weirwoods are trees of the Stranger and that there are a lot more gods than seven, the chill dude we met in the Riverlands, a faction that says something to the effect of "each person must be their own shepherd", etc. Also, for the septon preaching each person must be their own shepherd, according to Rumors post he was recently captured. It is recommended that he is to be publicly freed by some kind of angel to spark more rumors.

DragonParadox said:
"That is what you are working in with regards to the Faith, isn't it?" you realize. "Not just a reformed theology and priesthood which can accept magic, but many."

"If the septons are arguing theology they are not urging the peasants to sharpen their spears and axes to rise in revolt," Bloodraven agrees. "A rite for each of the Seven Kingdoms seems like the most stable division."

He pauses for a moment to set his thoughts in order. "For instance, there is a charismatic preacher telling all who will listen that Weirwoods are the trees of the Stranger, and that the gods are not seven but numberless, of which only seven have been written of for they are most alike to humankind. You have already seen my work in the Riverlands of course. In the Stormlands septons are passing messages, as of yet beneath the notice of the Most Devout, as to the importance of personal interpretation of holy texts and the responsibility of each septon for those in their care. Some even reject the word 'flock' when referring to their faithful, saying it makes a mockery of the wisdom and judgment all men were given."

11. We learned the locations of all of Varys' agents and where precisely they could be found.

DragonParadox said:
Much of the remainder of the meal is spent picking through Varys's web of agents, particularly the poor mutilated children he called his 'Little Birds'. Most of them are present in King's Landing, though a few can also be found on the bustling streets of Lannisport, White Harbor, Sunspear, and even Tyrosh. With the information you have it should be easy enough for the Inquisition or your allies to capture them before any of the Spider's other 'assets' can sink their claws into them.

"I can understand why he has fallen back on child spies in White Harbor or why he would not wish to use devils in Tyrosh and show his hand, but does not Varys fear the Golden Shields equally that he would afford the same status to Lannisport?" you muse, half to yourself.

DragonParadox said:
Having finished drawing the map Bloodraven's assistant dutifully jots down the name of every agent of note throughout the east before moving on to the informants. Many of the people mentioned there will doubtlessly find themselves scrutinized by the Inquisition in the fullness of time. Some might even be cultivated as sources. Varys was certainly skilled at his craft, that much even you must admit while cursing the man's name.

As to the arcane resources he offered to his agents, while significant by any ordinary standard, nothing seems to require your urgent attention. Perhaps some fortunate Inquisitor might make his or her job easier by claiming those also.

Gained List of Varys's agents and cashes of arcane treasures in Western Essos (including the true names of active devils)

12. Lanna and Gerion Lannister appear to be angling to place Tyrion as the next Lord Paramount of the Westerlands.

DragonParadox said:
"Ever since the conquest of Tyrosh he had become convinced that the greatest peril to his lands was in the east, not the west," Bloodraven explains. "He commanded all hid spies in the Westerlands to wait and watch only, even making use of the chaos of the destruction the Alchemist's Guild to pass on lore to the Golden Shields through the use of surviving Pyromancers as unwitting messengers," Bloodraven recounts slowly. "A not wholly inauspicious circumstance given the games the Lannisters' pet mages have been playing."

"How so?" you ask intrigued.

"Ever since the new Lord and Lady of Castamere took Tywin's dwarf son under their wing they have been subtly measuring the support for his succession among the lords. This could of course be no more than foresight in the event of the Old Lion's passing, but it might also be the beginning of a deeper intrigue. History has accounts aplenty of a son usurping the father, and the view from Castamere looking east to your new conquests must be bleak indeed."

"From what I have heard of him Gerion Lannister does not seem the sort of man to sacrifice his brother for his own gain," you reply, doubtful of such unlooked for good fortune.

"Not now certainly, but should it come to lord's head or his lands burning, he will sing a different tone I wager," Brynden Rivers says, with the air of long experience in such tactics.

13. Unfortunately little information on the Warlocks of Qarth, as they even managed to ferret out Varys' agents. Also little to no information on Castamere's laboratories.

DragonParadox said:
"Regardless, I do not imagine that it is mere happenstance that they are looking for properties in the east in Qarth or even further afield on the shore of the Jade Sea."

"So they must have made some alliance with the warlocks?" Dany asks

"That I do not know for I have no eyes that far in the east, and the Spider knew but a little more. His spies glimpsed Castamere's ledgers but not it's arcane laboratories or libraries," comes the reply, not bothering to hide the edge of frustration.

DragonParadox said:
Sadly one place where Varys's agents have been even less fortunate than in Lorath has been Qarth. The Undying seem to have an uncanny ability to find and kill any devils which enter their domain, and mundane agents simply seemed to vanish as soon as they delved too deep into the affairs of the city and its sorcerer lords. Thus you are still left wondering if the Lannisters gained the weapons they sought in Qarth.

14. Fishy, fishy things went on when the lords confronted Tywin over the Golden Shields. There is evidence that at least some of them were outright mind controlled.

DragonParadox said:
As you delve further into the politics of the Westerlands you become convinced that at least some of the lords had indeed been bespelled in the aftermath of your attack on Lannisport. House Jast for instance had gone from an outspoken critic of the Golden Shields, fueled in part by Lanna's broken betrothal, to meek silence. House Banefort likewise has seen its lord become a recluse in recent months. By contrast Houses Farman, Lefford, and Marbrand have been the greatest patrons of mages in the Westerlands.

15. The Farmans had a successful mission Beyond the Wall to recover lost lore from the Thenns. They would flip to us if we offer them enough. The Leffors are iffy. The Marbrands are an outright no.

DragonParadox said:
House Farman has even gone so far as to send an expedition to the lands beyond the Wall in search of arcane treasures or lore among the wildlings, which Bloodraven subtly guided with dreams and portents to help protect the Thenns against restless dead risen from their barrows to the call of Winter. "The Thenns hold much lore of the First Men, which would be lost if the Magnar clings to his vale into the teeth of Winter. Now they have learned that southerners can be trusted, a lesson on which more can be built," he finishes.

"You think the Farmans can be trusted though they support Casterly Rock ungrudgingly?" you ask, though you have fair idea of the answer. You have little doubt Bloodraven could have driven them to sail into the teeth of a storm if he wished the expedition broken.

"They are supporters of their own prosperity. Give them more with an open hand and they will support dragons as easily as lions. Marbrand would likely be more stubborn in his principles, and the Leffords could go either way."

16. Regarding Stannis, it's best to simply let him on the Small Council and let Robert do all the work for us in making an ass of himself to his brother. Inevitably they'll clash and Stannis will probably thrown back to either Storm's End or Dragonstone.

DragonParadox said:
Leaving aside the Lannisters you turn to the matter of that most improbable of Westerosi conundrums, an honorable and competent man soon to sit on the small council whom you would rather see anywhere else. If Stannis Baratheon takes the seat of master of laws he will likely as not fight to the bitter end in his brother's name, or worse still in the name of his supposed nephew, dying for the sake of oaths sworn dishonestly asked.

"So then you would take a leaf from Varys's book, put an arcane puppet to hold his seat, subsume his untainted agents, and supplement them with your own. As neat a weave as any I have seen," Bloodraven complements you absently, no courtly pretense in evidence. So might one craftsman complement another on their works. "Still," he continues in the same vein, "I think you might be too invested in ensuring the younger Baratheon's ass never touches the council seat. To try and move a King when he has set his mind so firmly on a course of action is difficult, for it is too easily seen as an attempt to usurp the power of the throne." Again a faint smile touches his withered lips. "Let him have his seat for a few days, a week even, and then point out to the king how unpleasant his company is. That should not be too hard given how little love there is between the two elder Baratheon brothers."

"So something like encouraging Stannis to pester his brother to attend council, or put into effect some of his less popular ideas?" you ask, the beginnings of a plan forming in your mind. They say Stannis Baratheon would outlaw brothels if he could. Doubtlessly he would be too canny to actually bring that up with the Usurper, but if a rumor that he might wish to do so made it onto the streets and then Robert were to hear it as some jeer or crude jape that would have the makings of a fight.

"Just so, Your Grace," Brynden Rivers replies when you share your thoughts. "The lord of Storm's End is a man of strong convictions. Thus while he might keep them behind his clenched teeth for a while he would be unlikely to deny them if asked outright."

17. We have the name of the Brachina currently enthralling Garth the Gross and the two Bone Devils guarding it, the name of the Gilded Devil heading the cabal in the Vale which includes the Corbrays (and presumably all lesser devils therein) ((should be noted this Gilded Devil can perform divine miracles, and that it has Lamentation)), and we learned that Varys sacrificed his dragon eggs to Mammon. We should expect some kind of Fiendish Dragon at some point.

DragonParadox said:
Dany clears her throat, breaking the uneasy silence. "Can you tell us the precise names and composition of each diabolic cabal Varys knows of, the manner they are organized, and the names of any fiends who might be in contact with him?"

Such a lovely ice-breaker, you think, the slightest bit bemused by the sudden sense of how far you had come, from the day when the mere mention of fiends would turn your stomach with fear.

Thus you learn that in addition to the Brachina acting in the Reach under the guard of a pair of Bone Devils, the Vale cabal, which includes the Corbrays, is headed by a Gilded Devil which has sacrificed many of the usual powers of his kind for the skill to mimic divine miracles, playing a part not unlike the mask of Dywen you donned before Lord Grafton. What is of greatest note for this fiend is the possession of Lamentation, the ancestral blade of House Royce which now lies in the desecrated barrow some three miles south of Heart's Home. No doubt Waymar will be eager to reclaim the sword as well as put paid the fiends who stole it.

"What about the names?" Dany prompts. "It would probably be better to just summon the fiends away and leave the mortals without allies to be swept up either by us or the local lords."

"In the interest of sparing my tongue the contortions needed to utter those names..." Bloodraven tilts his head slightly towards the glided calligraphy wyrm who claims of a sheet of parchment from the stack you had brought and starts writing quickly at the sorcerer's silent command.

Gained List of Devil names operating in Westeros

"And the Dragon Eggs they claimed from Summerhall?" you ask, hoping you will be able to recover them as easily as Lamentation.

Alas that fate is not so generous, nor your foes so foolish. "They have been sent to Hell, as part of the tithe Varys paid to his infernal master," Bloodraven replies.

18. The Fey will approach us to bargain for the Crown of Flowers, but they need to be carefully persuaded to accept Imperium Law or else they'll just declare war on us. We have the locations of various Old Gods-friendly courts, as well as not-so-friendly courts. Also, it is possible to shape their nature with stories.

DragonParadox said:
On the matter of the fey Bloodraven first admits himself conflicted. For on the one hand their pacts and games spread disorder and misery aplenty even when that is not their intent, but on the other of all be beings who dwell within the world or beside it they most easily hear his voice and do his bidding when the wings of ravens and the whisper of dreams cannot carry them far enough. "The fey are like the weather now, Your Grace. You cannot cast them out, for there is need of them just as there is of summer rains to water the crops and winds to bear the clouds aloft."

"And yet they change too swiftly to peril like hail or dry lightning to set the fields alight," Dany finishes darkly. "I have only profited from the bargains I have made, so mayhap the Court of Stars could in time come to pledge its oath to a mortal king, at least so far as they would walk on mortal soil."

For a long moment Bloodraven is silent. "A hard bargain to make that, though for the crown you keep mayhap they would take it..."

"Is the knowledge of its place common or only something you have heard from the royal fey you have pacted with?" you ask, worried that bold fey by the scores and hundreds might step into your realm and work their wiles in some mad plan to wrest the crown from you.

"The latter, though sadly gossip flies no less among their ranks than among those of men, and in that mirroring lies your greatest challenge with regards to the courts of the faerie, more than the moods of the court, more than oaths of lordship or titles of knighthood—the tales of the land shape they fey," Bloodraven's words grow slow as though he searches for each one in a half-forgotten memory. "In the Dawn Age when only the Children, the Giants, and other elder folk walked the world their tales were few and slow to grow like rings around a tree, but mortal men oh so love their tales and deeply do they live them. Like heady wine it is unto the fey, the pages of the play flashing before their eyes almost before they can play it out..."

"You speak of the Court of Stars?" you interject softly so as not to jar him from whatever half-dream he has slipped into.

"I speak of all of them," the Last Greenseer says. "The ones I set near Harroway, the cunning stone-folk who I offered passage into the Red Mountains lest the ever-snowy peeks fall under Winter's sway, even of their darker kindred—Redcaps, Rusalka, and Spriggan who rise from the blood-soaked soil of the Vale of Arryn—they are all drunk on mortal dreams or nightmares." He takes a deep rattling breath, the crimson eye once more looking fully upon the world of flesh. "As with all drunks that presents an opportunity to bargain from advantage."

"I already have the crown," you point out. "Surely they must desire it enough to at least come to the table to bargain."

"That far it will take you yes, but I fear no further. If you are to bind the fey with oaths you must look to those affinities which in story and song bind the tightest," the old sorcerer continues.

"Not merely oaths, then..." Dany trails off, her eyes widening in realization. "Kinship, you mean to bind them by blood to mortal Houses."

"Not merely so, though that is a good beginning. Smallfolk might do with fey blood for the blessings it brings. To bind the fey fully to mortal laws you must first bind them to the world, that they may not simply slip away from the curses of men into the Feywild as easily as walking from sunlight into shadow."

"I could follow them on those paths," you point out grimly. Not without a measure of trepidation for what you might lose of course, but to protect your subjects you would do so and your friends beside you, of that you are certain.

"So you might," Bloodraven allows. "So do I believe you would succeed in punishing any one interloper, but there might be very many, and kings have grander plans to occupy their time than this. Would your mages walk with as much confidence into the hidden realm?"

"No, not always," you admit. "But would the lords truly be beholden to the laws of the realm and not use the path opened for them to advance their own amusements at the expense of mortals high and low?" You briefly try to imagine Moonsong or Glyra with a knight's grant, the very picture of chaos presenting itself before your mind's eye. "To give leave to a company of immortals to rule over those who still must die would seem to breed resentments besides." Troubling enough to consider that the rich and powerful might be reborn again and again without the alien reasoning of the fey.

To your surprise Bloodraven does not have an instant rejoinder. He sighs. "A fairly made point, Your Grace. Perhaps I have grown too used to looking backwards to the beginning and forward only to the first snows. Yet you cannot forbid the fey to meddle in mortal affairs without risking war, and that is one we can all ill afford. You cannot bar their ways in every passage, for there are even now four score and three paths from the Feywild into the world of form that I know of, and they shift with every moment, with the movement of the stars and the tales men tell. Were you to strike all bards and tale-tellers mute and burn every grove you find, still others will open in time..."

"What if they were allowed to mingle their blood with that of mortals, but not rule over them in truth?" Dany asks. "A sort of honorary patronage. Might that be enough to entice them to negotiate?" Dany offers.

"To that, Highness, I cannot answer," Bloodraven replies. "What I can offer is the gates to those courts which are in debt to the Old Gods for offering them passage when they might have become lost and the names of those lords and ladies of the Court of Stars who I judge would be most open to bargaining as equals..."

"Equals?" Vee snorts. "The point's to get 'em to swear oaths, ain't it?"

"Indeed," Brynden Rivers replies. "However, you will never meet a fey lord or lady who would be willing to begin to bargain from a position of inferiority."

The golden false wyrm scribbles on, a map under its ministrations taking shape, as from the nest of roots emerge tokens of passage heavy with strange magics—a shard of amber glowing like fire, a single rose, its petals dark as the evening sky at dusk, and last of all what seems at first to be pearl but proves to be a dewdrop frozen in time.

Gained Tokens of Passage for Old Gods friendly courts near Harroway and Starfall, as well as one to the Court of Stars

Gained Location information on the Darker Vale Wyldfae

19. Garth the Green won the crown by telling a story. Also the fey won't try to steal the crown from our cloak.

DragonParadox said:
"How did Garth the Green claim the Crown of Flowers from the fey?" you ask after a brief while. Perhaps herein lies the answer to how you will ensure that the fey follow the law, that men can live their lives in peace.

Again Bloodraven's eye closes, though this time the silence is far longer. Finally he speaks: "He wagered that he could spin a tale so strange and wondrous with voice and harp alone, that all the arts of faerie could not match it. The fey did not then understand how far the human heart and mind could dare imagine, and so the king took the bargain. He lost his crown to Garth and his line, but took the tale so that none but him remember it."

"Would any of 'em try to steal back the crown?" Vee asks, practical as ever.

The Last Greenseer eyes your cloak with perhaps a glint of satisfaction in his eye. "Not from that, not lightly. They will sooner try to tempt you into giving it back with blandishments than try to win it back with stealth."

20. A Bloodraven equivalent for the Others appears to have popped up, and tried to sneak a rather powerful wight into Wintertown. Thankfully, Bloodraven found out and put a stop to it. We also already wrote a letter about the danger to Lord Stark, which he received.

DragonParadox said:
"Your counsel is always heard, your aid always appreciated," you reply sincerely. "But now I would hear of your great task. Where does the power of Winter linger in the south, be it in forgotten tombs or in the hearts of men foolish enough to heed blandishments upon a Northern wind?"

At these words Bloodraven frowns, the web of lines that cover his pale face deepening. "There is something in the North, someone more likely than not, worryingly subtle, enough so that it had escaped my sight entirely until a cart filled with hay crossed into Winter town with a wight hidden within. Thankfully the thing wasn't 'ripe' enough to rise by the time the agitation of hounds smelling meat caught the eye of one of my ravens. I plucked out the thing's eyes myself before seeking out the cart driver in his dreams. Alas, he was utterly guiltless and with no notion of where the cursed corpse could have come from. However, what it was meant to do was worryingly clear..."

Bloodraven trails off as a bat swoops down from high above, bearing in its claws what seems as first a pale pebble, but as it rolls onto the table you see that it is instead a frozen eye glaring blindly out at you. Dany catches it before you can, calling on the second sight with the speed of long practice.

"That is a bright lingering aura," she says grimly. "Particularly for something that never rose." Matching her incantation you have to agree, as strong a glow of death magic as a spell of the first or second circle might leave.

"Do you have any idea what it would have risen as?" you ask, a weight in your stomach as you consider Jon, so close to where Bloodraven had found this thing.

"He who used that eye in life was a hunter among the Mountain Clans, a cruel man and hated by his fellows, an exile since last winter," the Last Greenseer begins.

"He must have been a hell of a good shot," Vee whistles. "Even back in the swamp 'banishing' usually just meant a killin' where you didn't have ta see the corpse. Up in the North, with snow at least five feet deep, it's gotta be a lot worse."

"Argga was an extraordinary hunter indeed," Bloodraven confirms. "And one obsessed with his craft besides. He would have honed his skills in taking life besides the tirelessness and endless hunger of the grave. The First Men of old called that particular breed of horror Bykok. Whole clans might've starved to death as it hunted their hunters for vicious sport."

"But it wasn't hunters it had been sent to Winter town to hunt, is it?" you ask, the bite of worry only growing sharper with each word he spoke.

"No, certainly not," Bloodraven confirms. "What troubles me most is that I can see nothing of what happened to Argga's corpse between his death in a blizzard, and my removal of the eyes and the breaking of the curse upon it, or rather all I can see is the blizzard. It is clear enough which power veils it from sight, but not what hands They used to enact the plot." Then guessing your thoughts he adds, "I have been keeping an even closer watch than usual on your nephew, Your Grace, and I will be instructing the mage Lord Manderly sent to Winterfell the better to protect him and the rest of the Starks."

21. Rodrik the Reader and imported Lanternbearers and even Westermen are hunting down Drowned Men and Deep Ones, and the Westermen are studying Deep One corpses to try to understand their enemy and develop weapons against them. Also, some poorer villages have made bargains with the Deep Ones to offer up sacrifices for whatever they may need, but those villages are universally destroyed when discovered.

DragonParadox said:
"Hopefully you do not have such troubling news of the Deep Ones' doings, my lord," you press on ruefully.

"Quite the opposite for once, Your Grace," Bloodraven replies softly as another of the multitude of bats picks up the wight's eye out of Dany's hand to return it to some hidden nook above. "The Sunset Sea has seen some truly odd raids of late, sailing from Westerlander ports to the Isles and seeking very specific 'plunder'."

"Drowned Men?" you guess. In that at least you wish the Lannisters good hunting.

"And other fanatics, yes. The ones the Reader either could not touch due to blood, standing, or simply could not find." There is a glint in Brynden Rivers's eye as he continues that has nothing to do with magic. "Of course, the regent in Pyke officially knows nothing of these nighttime raids, and should he ever discover them he will doubtlessly send a most eloquent letter of rebuke to the Rock."

"Why are the Lannisters capturing suspected agents of the Deep Ones instead of just killing them?" Dany asks. "Somehow I do not think it is to give them a fair trial."

"Judging from some of the orders of purchase one of Varys's spies managed to glimpse in Castamere it would seem the Golden Shields are seeking some broader understanding of the connection between the Drowned God, the Storm God, and the things that lurk in the seas," Bloodraven explains. "There are hints that they are trying to create some manner of simple ward that can mark those touched by the Far Realm."

"A useful project," you note, pleased to hear that at least some Lannister effort is directed against threats to all life, not just to ones imperiling Tywin Lannister's ambitions.

Bloodraven goes on to explain that troubles in the Iron Islands are slowly and painfully coming to a close, though not without dozens of longships scattering to the horizon, bearing with them either the faithful of the Drowned God, or simply those who decided to take the opportunity to raid and plunder. At least some of those Ironborn will doubtlessly make it as far as the Stepstones to stir trouble, but you have the utmost confidence in your fleet to handle the ragged flotsam of the most recent Ironborn conflict.

Far more concerning are the instances of isolated coastal villages being bribed into complicity in feeding the Deep Ones' foul appetites. From the Westerlands to the Crownlands the pattern holds true. Thankfully in this at least the Faith, the Lannisters, and the Citadel seem to be in perfect agreement. No settlement which took the Deep Ones' offer has ever lasted more than two months after their fateful choice. While Bloodraven cannot divine where they will rise from the sea to make their offer again he is able to provide you with a fair mental picture of the sort of settlement that might be most at risk.

22. Bloodraven recommends we keep the Inquisition away from Oldtown for now and instead infiltrate the Arbor and spread slowly. Also for the Dornish Marches we're supposed to subvert various trader families as a start.

DragonParadox said:
Finally then you come to the matter of the Inquisition. In addition to offering the fledgling outposts' aid you also ask Bloodraven for suggestions on where to place future outposts, laying out your initial thoughts and their reasoning: Darry for its friendly lord and major crossroad, Oldtown for its importance both arcane and mundane, White Harbor for being the part of the North most open to the world, the Dornish Marches as a crossroad of three kingdoms, and finally Runestone, as much to serve as a shield for the House as to be your eyes and ears in the Vale.

"I can certainly see why Oldtown might be tempting. However, there are many powers vying for dominance there and already an abundance of spies," he cautions. "You might wish to allow your agents to have their first foray into the Reach be in a safer city, like say the Arbor, then with the use of local contacts move into Oldtown."

You nod along, seeing the logic behind his words.

"For the Dornish Marches you might be better served subverting one of the trader families which crisscross the area," he finishes. "The lack of large cities and centuries of mistrust would make setting up shop in any of the towns in the area troublesome."

23. Varys had an insane plan to plunge the world into chaos and war and then have f!Aegon Blackfyre swoop in and save the day.

DragonParadox said:
As the discussion moves from Westeros to Essos, the secrets shared are less Bloodraven's and more the fruit of Varys's mad ambition. He sought neither more nor less than to forge the Seven Kingdoms into one under the crown of the boy Aegon, all his crimes expunged in his own mind so long as that ideal of a philosopher king should mount the Iron Throne. "A Blackfyre by blood this Varys may not be, but he is more truly than any man I have ever known the heir of Bittersteel," Bloodraven spits, his pale throne creaking in anger. "He did not walk unwittingly into his damnable pacts, but instead embraced them, plotting all the while to set the servants of Tiamat upon the devils he has himself let loose in Westeros, a war of fiends to embolden the Faith once it had been cleansed of sloth and avarice. He planned to die upon the blade of the boy he raised to kingship as a sort of surrogate for what he might have been if fate had been kinder, if he had not been enslaved and mutilated. Thus should 'King Aegon Sixth of His Name' march north at the head of an army not of lords and princes, but of the people inspired to 'greatness'..."

"That's... sick," Dany says, pale as a sheet, whether from anger or revulsion you cannot say. "He knew what stirs in the North, what dwells in the sea, and yet he chose to ally with things as bad as them just so he could be 'right', just so he could break everything in some ode to his own suffering."

You nod, momentarily speechless at how alike and yet how different you are from the man splayed out on the floor. He too wishes to reforge the Seven Kingdoms, to bring about a better world, but where you have been careful to leave in place as much as you dare, to spill as little blood as could be managed in the service of your vision, Varys seemingly revels in it, in his own way as mad as your father when he called to burn down King's Landing, save only that the flames that Varys conjured are unseen. Now at last the choice to send you hundreds, thousands of sick and hungry smallfolk to Sorcerer's Deep makes sense. It had not been some off-handed attempt to placate his supposed liege-lord, no, he had been trying to export misery and malcontent, to breed in that soil the seeds of bloody rebellion he had hoped would bring about a new day free of the tyranny of lords and sorcerers.

"It is a grand thing, this dream, this nightmare the Spider wished to see made real," you say softly. "Grand enough perhaps to see the undoing of gods and devils, until the streets would run red with the blood of the highborn and wealthy, guilty and innocent all thrown together." Suddenly you remember the face of the former daemon worshiper whose sacrifice opened the path here. 'One of the masters' he had called you, hate glinting in his eye. It is that hate kin to utter despair that Varys would have sought to use to bring about his 'better world'. You shudder under that vision of the world as you had not even beneath the gaze of otherworldly horrors.

"Crazy as a rabid weasel," Vee spits, the plain-spoken insult jarring you from your horror, as you rather suspect she had intended. The girl might not care much for people, but she has known you for years now.

"Alright," you take a keep breath. "How the hells was he going to do this? Even with the head cut off it is beholden us to spike as many wheels in this madness as we can."

"And profit from it where we can, whether it be turning agents to other purposes or stealing treasures," Dany adds.

24. This was already taken care of, but Varys had a diabolic orator and several cultists poised to assassinate Benerro and frame Zherys for it, and thus keep us occupied with that. Benerro was warned, and the cultists were presumably disposed of.

DragonParadox said:
Again a ghost of a smile pulls at Bloodraven's cracked and withered lips for a moment before he begins recounting what he had learned. "The most urgent, perhaps, is the plot to have the High Flame Keeper in Volantis assassinated by some of his less reasonable followers with the intent to accuse the High Speaker of the Mysterium, plunging the city and its outskirts into civil war and forcing you to keep your gaze firmly east." He continues, recounting the names of the priests complicit in the deed as well as the diabolic orator who had been set to oversee the project. Varys had seemingly seen the possibility that the fiend may tempt some of the priests into apostasy, further muddying the waters to be an advantage for he is mistrusting of the Red God and his motives, for his endorsement of slavery. The hypocrisy seems almost thick enough to choke you.

25. Varys plotted to have a mob burn down a crap ton of buildings in Pentos including Braavos-owned buildings, thus making it untenable for the Sealord to negotiate with them. This was to be used with Illyrio's old contacts, whom we should have gotten intel on.

DragonParadox said:
Of perhaps even greater concern is a similar plot to incite bloody rebellion in Pentos on the eve of the Braavosi attack, with mobs of freemen primed to burn down the harbor including the holdings of many Braavosi merchant houses as an opening move, thus making it untenable for the Sealord to negotiate with the rebels, turning Braavos and you from liberators into seeming oppressors. He was seemingly quite taken with that particular plot as it would resonate well with the dark rumors the Lannisters were spreading about you in Westeros. At least there are no devils in Pentos, instead using Illyrio's old contacts.

26. Varys had some plans to assassinate the leaders of Lorath and Qohor.

DragonParadox said:
Apart from that Varys had vaguely planned to overthrow the current lords of Lorath and Qohor, but his spies and agitators had been slow to recruit in the former city and sent into utter disarray by the religious conflicts in Qohor.

27. The Golden Company is heavily active east of the Bone Mountains, is led by Aegon Blackfyre who is a cleric of the sixth circle, and openly worships Tiamat. Aegon was cared for by Jon Connington. Illyrio is known by Varys to be Aegon's father.

DragonParadox said:
The Golden Company, Bloodraven explains, is both more and less than what it was when it marched west seeking to place Maelys the Monstrous upon the Iron Throne. An entire generation marching with no higher purpose than any other sellsword company had worn away notions of chivalry and Westerosi heritage which someone like Ser Gerold, much less Aubert Flowers, might recognize.

They marched east in search of riches and secrets, of treasures held in the dead cities, and there they found a new guiding principle, for Tiamat slipped in among their dreams and fanned the flames of greed into a inferno. She bequeathed her dark blessings freely, and so soldiers walked where they might have been lamed, they could see where they might have been blind, and they lived where they might otherwise have died. The company that Bloodraven describes is truly Aegon's army.

They would bleed and die for him, not only for the gain it might bring them in the legend gathering around him. 'The Young Dragon' they call him after defeating the zorse riders of Jogos Nhai. As a king they treat him ungrudgingly for they have seen him work in battle great acts of magic against the songs of power the moonsingers called forth, powers you recognize as being of the sixth circle at least. All this Bloodraven explains swiftly and without much personal comment, then for a long moment he hesitates.

"The boy is breaking," he says at last, voice as soft as you have ever heard it. "The Mother of Wyrms rules his dreams, but Varys would use him to be a champion for the Seven for his grand empire drawn from the ashes of the Seven Kingdoms. Too many hopes have been poured into him. Jon Connington, once Lord of Griffin's Roost, teaches him the blade and thinks of him as Prince Rhaegar come again. Illyrio Mopatis wishes to make of him a great statesman even while he jumps from every shadow, seeing you and your friends come to finish what you started in Pentos."

Jon Connington, so that is who had been guarding him before he reunited with the Golden Company, you realize. He was a great friend of your brother and briefly Hand of the King during your last days in King's Landing. Aye, you can well imagine such a man serving Rhaegar's supposed son as loyally as Ser Richard does you. Perhaps there might be a way to spare his life for the sake of your brother's memory if he has not committed any great crimes under the shadow of Tiamat.

"What is the Cheesemonger's stake in all this?" Dany interjects.

"A surprisingly pedestrian one," Brynden Rivers replies with a small twitch of the head that might have been a shrug. "He is the boy's father."

With that the last piece falls into place. Illyrio Mopatis scorning the daughters of his peers and wedding instead a bedslave for love or even simple infatuation had always struck an odd note with you. But if that slave girl had been the one to carry the Blackfyre blood, aye, you could see him wedding her at the behest of his friend Varys. Who was she to the Spider? you wonder. A sister, a cousin, a niece? Someone enslaved with him or one whom he had found later?

"Is she still alive?" Dany asks, her own questions more practical than yours. "Aegon's real mother, I mean. If she has Blackfyre blood Tiamat can use her just as easily as her son."

"No, she died of slow fever some six years ago," Bloodraven replies. "Illyrio has seemingly tried to return her to life, but she refused the call. By far the wisest decision any Blackfyre has made in well over half a century."

"So he has one heir, one chance to make his son a king," you muse. "His loyalty to the cause even in the face of growing paranoia seems far more understandable now."

28. Illyrio is hiding in the Shadow Fortress out of fear of us. A cabal of mages from N'ghai has moved against the Golden Company because they're anti Valyrian (very ironic). And we got intel on the strength the Golden Company wields.

DragonParadox said:
As you delve deeper into the matter of the escaped Cheesemonger you discover that he is not cut of the same cloth as Varys—a cunning man, yes, and skilled in the ways of intrigue, but his days of wielding a sword are behind him. Little wonder that he spends most of his days in the fortress built in the shadow of Sarnath and summons Aegon to him rather than stepping out under the sun.

The other power among the council of the Golden Company is the young wyrm who deigned to linger there after hatching through blood magic. She is not wholly Tiamat's creature as you had assumed, but instead inclined to follow Varys in his schemes after having gained a grudging respect for the eunuch after he saved her from a cabal of N'ghai mages calling themselves the 'Sons of Dusk'. From what Bloodraven is able to piece together they were, and still are, opposed to the alliance with the Golden Company out of a mistrust for all things Valyrian and an even more profound one of anything that makes its home in the Abyss, such as the Mother of Wyrms.

It seems the Golden Company's departure from Nefer was not entirely owed to their hurry to sell their services to the Azure Emperor, but also to prevent further open confrontation with these sorcerer lords.

"Given their reasons for opposing our enemies they would make awkward allies," you note, motioning to your very much Valyrian features.

"Still, there may be some use in seeking them out," Bloodraven replies. "Alas that the Spider did not know the precise nature of the artifacts offered in payment for their services, and through the machinations of the Mother of Wyrms he has been stymied from discovering it. That would seem to indicate that they may have played a part in Her plans to rid herself of Varys."

"So everyone wants to bloody backstab everyone else in that lot?" Vee asks in disgust. "Bastards would probably kill each other off if we just let them to it."

"Perhaps," you allow. "Unfortunately they might take half of Essos with them." The jest is bitter upon the tongue, but still it earns a pair of smiles and a hacking chuckle from Bloodraven. From there you move on to the specifics, numbers of men and mages, supplies and the state of their coffers. That much at least Varys can tell you in exacting detail.

Some of their drakes had perished in the fighting alongside no small number of their troops for the zorse riders were canny and seemingly high in the favor of their goddess. Still, the news that they gather more men like a boulder rolling down hill as they approach the borders claimed, if not controlled, by Yi Ti does not make a welcome hearing.

Wizards:
1 Wizard of the Fifth Circle
3 Wizards of the Fourth Circle
1 Wizard of the Third Circle
4 Wizards of the Second Circle
6 Wizards of the First Circle

Clerics:
1 Aegon 'Young Griff' Chosen of Tiamat, mage of the Sixth Circle
1 Tiamat Cleric of the Fifth Circle
1 Tiamat Cleric of the Fourth Circle
2 Tiamat Clerics of the Third Circle
4 Tiamat Clerics of the First Circle

Dragons:
1 Very Young Red Dragon with Mind Blank
23 Drakes with Prismatic Breathweapons

Cavalry:
5 Elephants
2,300 Heavy cavalry
1,400 Light cavalry

Infantry:
6000 Heavy infantry
5000 Light infantry (mostly new recruits)

29. Varys planned to assassinate the rebel Yi Tish general who styled himself as the first Orange Emperor in Trader Town. Also, Varys was unaware of the three Gilded Devils in the court of the Azure Emperor.

DragonParadox said:
Where plots are concerned perhaps the most surprising discovery is that the three devils you had called from the court of the Azure Emperor had not been under Varys's control, indeed he had known nothing of them. Mammon it seems is no slower than Tiamat in making moves against a treacherous servant.

"Our enemies' spies seem to be rather thin on the ground east of the Bone Mountains," Dany muses. "I do not think either Illyrio or Varys were expecting to fight that far east."

"The Spider planned to absent himself from the Red Keep for most of next month," Bloodraven agrees. "It is in his mind that he could simply assassinate the rebel Yi Tish general to soften the enemy and hand the Golden Company an easy triumph and a smooth path to Yin."

"It is a long way from the northern plains to the capital," you note, keenly aware that for the first time since you had learned that the Golden Company were your enemies you know precisely where they are, and where the boy Aegon is.

30. The Golden Company is responsible for the undead Sarnori arranging themselves into a parody of a kingdom. One of the undead, the Rat King, is a guard for the Shadow Fortress, and has a spellbane against Mind Blank. We also got a map in general of how to get to the Shadow Fortress and the traps along the way and inside.

DragonParadox said:
Having at last an understanding of both your enemies' motives and the pieces in play in this world you turn your attention to their last bastion, the one Anu admits to having helped build, the spire in the shadow of Sarnath-that-Was where the Spider's long time ally hides from you and from the world surrounded by stacks of parchment and whatever gold and treasure the conspirators were able to amass in service of their schemes.

The first challenge to entering it by stealth is unsurprisingly the dead of Sarnath themselves, for the fallen kings are without flesh and range freely from the world of form to that of twisting shadows. The pact that binds them to the Blackfyre cause is more one of mutual convenience than honor, however. The mages of the Golden Company had helped shape Sarnor's curse from one of mindless rage and retribution to something approximating the the macabre parody of a living kingdom, and so under the gaze of Tiamat nine fallen kings swore to guard the fortress letting past only Illyrio, Varys, Aegon, and the dragon Lizzirth, they alone may freely guide others into the tower past the sleepless guards. To guard against enchantment and glamour, they too must present themselves before the gaze of the 'Rat King' of Gornath whose many eyes it is said no sorcerer can foil.

"Wait," Dany interjects frowning. "Doesn't Varys wear a talisman that wards him against all mages' sight while the young dragon is naturally so warded?"

"The chamber in which the Rat King judges those who are to pass suppresses that magic even while it is outwardly warded to keep any foes from looking in on the momentarily unveiled mages," Bloodraven explains. "Take note, however, that it is only that spell. For all the Rat King's undying loathing of traitors and liars makes him a dutiful guard, he is not a sorcerer of any sort..."

"So we might be able to just talk past him," you finish thoughtfully.

"Why does that rat fellow hate traitors so much?" Vee asks, curious.

"Because he was murdered by his Dothraki bride, after foolishly allying with one of their khals against Kasath," Dany explains before you can. "I have never heard of Gornath's last king being called the 'Rat King' though, only the city itself named 'City of Rats' in the tongue of the Horselords."

"It seems that when Khal Moro finally sacked the city he took care to rob the king's recently occupied tomb and cast his copse aside to be devoured by the same rats that were feasting upon the countless other dead of Gornath," Bloodraven explains darkly. "Let it not be said that the Dothraki did not earn the hatred that saw an entire kingdom claw its way from the grave."

"Righteous or not it that hatred serves none," you say with a grimace. "I don't suppose Varys knew of any way to simply enter the tower by magic, circumventing its guards entirely?" The question does not have much hope to it and indeed the old sorcerer shakes his head slightly.

Beyond the dead watchers lies a maze of twisted and trapped corridors, though to these Varys thankfully knows the way past, for he set many of the traps with his own hands and even helped design the layout of the chambers. Here lie the arcane laboratories of those same artificers who set about imitating Vee's creations. Here too lies the treasure chambers where you might find the plunder the the dead cities, the lore and weapons bought with stolen coin. Onto each one Bloodraven draws a path on parchment, warning of shadow beasts tethered to the wards just as they had been at Illyrio's manse, creatures too savage to serve as aught but guard dogs, but still dangerous enough in their own right that Varys himself would not lightly try to steal from his allies of convenience. Besides these there are also living chambers for those who, like Illyrio, feel they must hide away from the world.

Gained Map of the Fortress in the Shadow Plane adjacent to Sarnath

31. Varys was apparently "tolerated by" the Bloodstone Emperor. We also gained knowledge of paths into the Shadow Plane.

DragonParadox said:
Bloodraven goes on to explain that perhaps fortunately there are no great empires in the realm of shadows, only the tattered remnants of those who have fled some great catastrophe, who had chosen to endure past their time even if they could not live. Among these pale exiles, however, one realm stands apart, eldest, richest, and most malignant, the one whose lord you had so recently, and unintentionally, showed yourself to.

"They are allied to the godsdamned Bloodstone Emperor?" you ask, indulging yourself in a handful of curses in the tongue of Hell at the depths Varys and his allies were willing to stoop.

"Allies is too strong a word," Bloodraven replies. "They are tolerated, which is the best one might be seen in the eyes of that dark power, for in the Spider's own estimation it divides the world into 'tolerated', 'slaves', and 'food'."

"Not so different from whose Varys swore his soul to twice over, then," Dany says scornfully. "What does he know of the Bloodstone Emperor and his broken realm?"

"Little that you did not already surmise for the Spider was not much concerned with arcane lore, with the reasons behind the nightmares. His disdain for magic, even as he wielded it, makes him blinder perhaps than the most fanatical of septons." Brynden Rivers, who had seen the use of sorcery even when the tides of power were at their nadir, briefly looks at the sleeping eunuch with passionate contempt. "Regardless, the paths your enemies followed through the realm of shadow to trade with the realm of the rakshasa might yet serve as a opening for you and yours."

Gained knowledge to paths leading under the Shadow in the East

32. The Old Gods say yes please to a plant dragon guardian. As for the adamantine mine it's in the lands of the Brunes of Brownhollow and was once a shrine to the Sky Father.

DragonParadox said:
"Wasn't there some other stuff you meant to ask?" Vee speaks ups suddenly. "There's that sword you found up at the Whispers and the dragon bones too. What did the gods mean to do with him and where'd the metal come from..."

At this question the Last Greenseer falls silent, his eyes blind to the world of form as he seeks dreams and memories of old. For almost an hour through he is still as death, leaving you to ponder all the revelations you had been party too, from plots in the east to royal bastards in the heart of the Red Keep. So many secrets fallen from your enemies' hands into your own that you almost do not know how to begin leveraging them...

Finally Bloodraven speaks again: "The bones are yours to use as you see fit, though there are, as you have guessed, many voices who wish them to serve as a guardian of weirwoods yet again. As to the source of otherworldly metal, it seems the Brunes of Brownhollow will have far more than pine barrens and bogs to their name. Three days south from their keep there is a great pine tree cleft in twain by lightning, for the sky remembers the altar that stood there when the land was young. Buried beneath the heavy peat beneath the bedrock there is a shard of metal that fell from the stars... the same from which was wrought the dragonslayer's blade."

You nod, wondering how the Brunes would see this sudden windfall. Lord Eustace will likely grumble to himself, if not aloud, for having gotten a sword where his cousins get a mine.

33. The Golden Company doesn't have dragon eggs, but Asshai has more than a dozen, and the court of the Azure Emperor has three (which the Golden Company has their eye on).

DragonParadox said:
"I would rather see false dragons than the truest of the breed," you point out grimly. "Four are already too damn many." Pausing a moment you ask: "Does Varys known of any other places in Essos where one might find dragon eggs? I assume he raided collectors' vaults for the ones he used, but surely there must have been some he judged to not be worth seeking out, like the ones in Braavos..."

Thus you discover that there are indeed more dragon eggs to find, though none in places you would lightly tread. Asshai is said to hold more than a dozen, not merely held as rare curiosities but used by the sorcerers who make their home in the that strange lonely city. Further there are said to be three eggs in Yin at the court of the Azure Emperor, remnants of the Yellow Dynasty during which several dragonlords wed into the imperial line. There had been talk in the council of the Golden Company of claiming those eggs as the prize for defeating the rebel general, though phrasing such a request in a manner which would not offend the Emperor's dignity had proven troublesome.

34. The Stranger's Chosen is unseen by Bloodraven, but apparently the Mother hasn't even selected a champion yet since she seems to be waiting for something.

DragonParadox said:
It is you who breaks the silence this time, with a question which has slipped away in the maelstrom of momentous discoveries. "You told me of the Crone's and the Smith's Chosen, the Warrior's I have met, and the Maiden's and Father's I've heard of. But what of the last two, the Mother and the Stranger?"

"The Stranger's acts are veiled from my sight, for he among all the Seven is most skilled in walking unseen," Bloodraven admits. "As for the Mother, she seems to be waiting for something as none have been moved by her hand yet."

35. Bloodraven advice on how to make the Imperium a pseudo-deity controlled by us.

DragonParadox said:
"Speaking of Gods..." Dany trails off. "How did the Green Dream come to be?" The question might have once been one to be avoided, delving as it did into the lore of beginnings which could all too easily be parlayed into that of endings, but now there is trust enough between you to ask and the question is certainly not idle. You explain your plan to give your realm the metaphysical weight of divinity with the roads and bridges as its arteries.

"Ambitious," Bloodraven says laconically, in what you suspect is intentional understatement. "Alas, I cannot give you an answer to that question in hours or even days, for the eldest of dreams are a difficult tangle to parse. Can I assume there is no urgency in your plans of midwifing a god?"

"No great rush, no," you reply with a smile.

"Then I will give you my thoughts and suggestions into the matter in a month's time," the Last Greenseer replies simply. "For what it is worth I would very much wish to see this protector spirit or god come into being. Men could do with such a being to stand against all the horrors that would hunt them."

"I wonder if there wouldn't be something to learn from the fey?" Vee interjects unexpectedly. "I mean... they're sort of god-things, the way lighting and a firefly are kin at least. Maybe watch the Queen Rhaella set up her court..?"

"Perhaps," Bloodraven allows. "Another new thing to spread out across the seas of the world."

Or maybe the next one will return to land, you think, pondering protectors of Weirwoods or even new fey courts to spin new tales and make them true. A matter for another time. For now, there is one more question you would ask Bloodraven and many you would ask Pycelle.

36. After a meeting with "Dywen of the Old Gods," Lord Grafton should be properly convinced to sacrifice Corbray to the Old Gods.

DragonParadox said:
"Speaking of priestly masks, how go the seeds Dywen sowed? Is Lord Grafton any closer to embracing the Old Gods after having been reunited with his daughter?"

"Alas, he is rather busy digesting the reality of his new bastard granddaughter to give much thoughts to gods," Bloodraven sighs. "My plan for Alyssa Grafton did not initially account for staying in her father's good graces, but adjustments can be made, will be made. After receiving his first taste of fighting diabolists he will wish for gods rather more attentive than the Seven, and Danar has a silver tongue for more than wooing maidens."

"Well, after the 'wooing' he's done he's gonna need it," Vee chuckles.

"Indeed. He is currently praying for fierce battle and mighty victories in the finest Skagosi tradition," the Last Greenseer agrees. More seriously he adds: "Your success in donning the guise of Dywen has made me rethink the use of the Green Men. Where before I saw them as envoys to Houses that still keep to the Old Gods, now I begin to wonder if spreading the word might be worth the attempt. Though they are not the gods of men neither is the Great Serpent who lies coiled in Sorcerer's Deep, and his priests have been gathering no small number of converts."

DragonParadox said:
*rolls backlog*

Decent rolls and a pivotal crit. Grafton is willing to convert, however he is still not terribly keen on blood sacrifice for practical reasons of not wanting to be hated by his neighbors

37. Pycelle stumbled across the Maester conspiracy against magic (the last Grand Maester was assassinated for this), Tywin is aware of said conspiracy, and Pycelle recently decided to throw himself at our mercy, so we recruited him.

DragonParadox said:
Grand Maester Pycelle, you soon learn, is a man far cleverer than he lets on, though not near as clever as he thinks himself, a fact illustrated by his current circumstances you suppose. His philosophy in life, according to Bloodraven, is in many ways one of the inveterate sycophant: 'Serve the strongest, but always from fifty paces behind their banners that you might have time to bow before any victorious challengers.' He wraps his cowardice in petty rationalizations even to himself, like colorful ribbons around a crooked lance. After all, if he were to lose his head then how could the realm remain peaceful? Somewhat to your surprise, however, his concerns for his own skin did not begin in your father's court, nor even on the day he became Grand Maester, but before that...

"Grand Maester Merion was assassinated by his own colleagues on the Roseroad before he could reach King's Landing?" you ask, shocked by the revelation of murderous plots in a time you had always thought of as relatively peaceful for the Seven Kingdoms. "Why did the Archmaesters not launch an investigation, or if the one who ordered the murder had such authority as to block it why did he not simply block Merion's accession?"

"Remember the year, Your Grace," Bloodraven's soft voice is heavy with secrets yet unspoken.

"Two-Hundred-and-Fifty-Nine..." you trail off. "The year of the Tragedy at Summerhall."

"We tracked it down to a bound imp incautiously freed," Dany cuts in. "The pyromancers did have links to devils..."

"Be that as it may, Highness, tragedy need not have only one author," Bloodraven sighs. "Had I only been there perhaps I would have noticed it... then again, if I had been kept on at court half the realm might have rebelled."

Dany looks like she is barely holding herself back from flying across the chasm to offer a hug as she had at the end of your first meeting. Instead she limits herself to saying, "You couldn't be everywhere, none of us can be." Then she asks the question that was on your lips also: "How did Pycelle know his predecessor was killed and what was his part in the conspiracy?"

"There were whispers of assassins floating around the Citadel from the day the news of Merion's death reached Oldtown, making Pycelle go so far as to nearly reconsider his own bid," Bloodraven explains. "Then one faithful day a letter found him in a brothel, impeccably written, sealed in blood red wax, and the link missing from Merion's chain... the Valyrian Steel link."

"Most would have assumed it was stolen by the innfolk when they found the body," you realize. "Instead, someone used it to send a message to Pycelle."

"Indeed," the old sorcerer continues. "The letter assured him that he would have the votes to become the new Grand Maester and that he was in no danger of meeting his predecessor's fate if he stymied the king's efforts to acquire dragon lore, useful dragon lore that is. A list of texts he could safely provide the court was included. While Pycelle may have been able to guess that they were not useful I can assure you that they were far worse than that, Your Grace. The works of fools and charlatans, you could probably kill a healthy dragon three times over following the advice in some of those books."

"So this... conspiracy," you only barely get the word out instead of something stronger, "was not directly responsible for the Tragedy at Summerhall, but they did push King Aegon into trusting the pyromancers and other dubious sources. Did Pycelle ever learn who had sent it, who arranged for him to become Grand Maester?"

"No, he did not, though he is still in possession of the letter, and many years later showed it to his chosen protector at court, a young Lord Tywin Lannister, newly made Hand of the King." The words hang in the air for a long moment as you find yourself leaning in as you had not done even when he proclaimed the true parentage of the Queen's children. "The Hand assured Pycelle that he would receive the full warding and protection of House Lannister, but he seemed content to leave the assassins be..."

"Because no great lord would wish the king to possess dragons," Dany finishes. "Least of all if that king were Aegon the Fifth."

"So then what happens now that I command dragons, that I am a dragon? Does Pycelle know nothing of this conspiracy, whose marks we have found before?" you ask, unable to keep a thread of frustration from your voice. The maesters could be so useful in almost every aspect of your reforms if only you could bloody trust them not to try to betray you the moment your back is turned.

"He has suspicions, gathering letters, hints of what the truth may be," Brynden Rivers continues, recounting the precise locations of all Pycelle's most carefully held damning documents, including dozens of compromising letters for lesser court officials and even proof that Baelish has been lining his own pockets with the proceeds of the Gulltown trade.

"There is one other thing you aught to know about the Grand Maester before I speak on, Your Grace," the ancient seer says. "He has been gathering such compromising information feverishly in the last year because he has decided that House Targaryen is now the stronger once again. It was in his mind to flee to Sorcerer's Deep with as many secrets as he could gather and throw himself upon your mercy. Indeed, in this Pycelle is truly wise, he no longer believes Tywin Lannister will defeat you."

"So if you just look through his mind and then we set him back in King's Landing without a memory of the last day I will see him in the Deep in a few weeks or months trying to sell me secrets I already know." For a moment you indulge yourself in imagining the scene play out, telling him you know of all he sought to buy his safety with and of all his betrayals.

"Would he be any good?" Vee asks, her voice profoundly doubtful and for good cause.

"He is clever enough to have survived at court for decades, even Aerys' court at the end when he alongside the Hand were playing a balancing act between those loyal to the king and Prince Rhaegar respectively, and he is profoundly loyal to his own skin," Bloodraven recounts dispassionately. "Ordinarily I would counsel against retaining his services, but with my own presence at court he could be made... useful. I might even be able to counsel him into using his authority against the conspirators he so fears."

You raise a hand, not wishing to hear more until one other question was answered. "Did he know or suspect what would happen when my father opened the gates of King's Landing to the Lannisters?"

"He was not expecting a sack, the king's death certainly and he was positively anticipating 'Grand Master' Rossart's death, but he had overestimated Tywin's hand, assuming he could simply present King's Landing intact to the new king as proof of loyalty rather than having to daub himself in blood." The old sorcerer gives another brief hacking laugh like a raven's caw in truth. "He even thought it possible that Tywin Lannister might crown himself king by virtue of possessing the Iron Throne and his history of governing the Seven Kingdoms as Hand."

"Then I suppose I aught to take it as a compliment that my own acts seemed to have terrified him enough to consider betraying his patron," you snort.

38. No pulling a Bran and bringing a Deep One, Devil, or Other to Bloodraven's weirwood. That will ruin the wards.

DragonParadox said:
"Speaking of prisoners whose minds you might peer through," Dany interjects. "How strong a subdued foe can be safely brought into these wards? Could we for instance carry here a mage of the Deep Ones, or a commander in the hosts of Hell?"

"Neither Deep One mages nor the Others in flesh and truth are safe to bring within these halls," he replies. "Of fiends I am less certain, though it might be best to err on the side of caution in that regard as well, given the enmity we have all gained by holding back the Spider's soul from his master."

39. Euron intel from Bloodraven.

DragonParadox said:
Rolling up the maps Bloodraven's assistant had so diligently sketched, you are about to set about the task of crafting the Spider's false twin when a memory comes to mind, a longship you had glimpsed a year and three months past almost to the day. Silent as death and warded by blackest sorcery, a lurking hunger in the mist.

You cannot say what made you ask of Euron Greyjoy, called the Crow's Eye, whether it be chance or some flash of prescience, but the words strike the ancient seer deeply, his single eye twitching closed for the briefest instant. "I had hoped..." He sighs softly. "It matters little now. The three of you have heard of my triumphs aplenty, it is only fair that you know of my failures also."

The admission does not surprise you. One does not weave as many plots as Brynden Rivers does without becoming tangled in them on occasion. "Whatever is amiss I will help set it right, my lord," you assure him. A moment later Dany voices her agreement, then Vee, though hastening to add that 'fiddly plans aren't what she's best at'.

Though it is still hard to read emotions upon the lined and aged face it seems to you that Bloodraven is heartened by the offer and trust, his voice stronger in the telling: "You are not the first to whom I have reached out, Your Grace, not the first to hear the call of ancient dreams. Some thirty years ago at Pyke a boy was born to Quellon Greyjoy and Irna Sunderly, who though she knew it not was of the blood of the Fisher Kings of old through saltwives long forgotten. The child, named Euron by his father, grew strong of body and mind and ever curious of what lay beyond the horizon. Uncommonly for an Ironborn he sought lore wherever he could find it, not only warriors' tales but also in books such as those his father had gathered, though those he studied in secret, so as not to be counted soft by his fellows. He dreamed of wealth and power, of lordship and carving his name across the face of time."

"Sounds too good to be true," Dany notes softly, likely remembering the dark ship you had glimpsed with his black and blood-red sails.

"I took great care," Bloodraven continues. "To ward the child in flesh and spirit from the influence of the dark power that has for so long blighted the Iron Islands. He grew fearless in the face of man and sea, disdaining the Drowned Men and their prayers no less than the Seven Gods of the 'greenlanders'. Alas that there was one vice I did not think to keep from him, one that I might have so easily recognized, but which had forgotten meandering through the dreams of past and present, simple human wickedness. Euron's heart was stone even to his own kin and the most pleasure did he take was from the suffering of others, thereby affirming his own strength. For a time I thought I might still make use of him, flawed instrument though he might be. I taught him arcane lore which he so craved, cautioning him that moderation and self-knowledge are needful for any great endeavor." Another sigh passes his lips. "On the day of the Sack of Lannisport I knew that the rot had gone too deep that he would not serve any purpose but his own desires, even though it might mean the end of the world..."

"What'd he do?" Vee asks before you could.

"He indulged himself as the worst of men do in such times," Bloodraven continues grimly. "His deeds were worse than common cruelties, though. His brother Victarion had found a girl fair to his eye and though he wished to take her as a salt wife he would not lay with her unless she asked it of him..."

"How noble of him. He would ask her if he aught to climb in bed but locked the door to the chamber?" Dany snorts at what might have passed in the raider's mind as some grand gesture of affection.

"I do not disagree, Highness, but that fate would have still been kinder than what befell her in the end," the ancient sorcerer replies. "Euron raped and murdered her, saying that she was 'unclaimed as a boat adrift at sea'. Partly it was for lust and partly to teach Victarion to fear him as his brother. There was no shame in him and no regret, not even for all he would lose in his exile, for he believed utterly in his own greatness, in the fate he sought to carve for himself."

The thought of what such a man might have done wandering the world possessed of whatever lessons Bloodraven had already given him is like a stone in the pit of your stomach. "He might be too prideful to pledge his soul to dark powers, but I suspect he would be worthy of sacrifice before a heart tree," you say, only a stubborn sense of justice stops you from calling it certainty rather than suspicion.

"I would certainly welcome the deed even as the Gods would his blood," the Last Greenseer replies, though he cautions you also, saying that Euron has sailed the seas as an exile for just as long as you had wielded magic with teachings in the arcane arts stretching back before that. "Warging I taught him and the arts of foresight, and on the day I exiled him from the Greendream he was still learning how to bind mist and storm to his call. He might yet have learned much in that time..."

Goldfish · Mar 16, 2019

Duesal said:
That took way too long... Anyway, @Azel, Bloodraven intel with more urgent bits of intel marked in red.

BLOODRAVEN INTEL

1. Cersei and Jaime have been cuckolding Robert, none of the "royal children" are true Baratheons, and Varys has been actively covering for them so they don't get revealed at a time inconvenient to his plans. Also, Robert himself has been protected by Varys because Cersei wants to kill him and isn't smart enough to realize how dumb the idea is.

2. Varys sought to raise the Faith against us.

3. The Lord and Heir of House Florent are devil cultists who are actively working to implicate us in exchange for control of the Reach. The rest of the House is vaguely aware of fishy activity but they have not sworn to any dark powers.

4. Garth Tyrell, called Garth the Gross, Lord Seneschal of Highgarden, is being possessed by a Brachina. He was meant to implicate us at the Conclave of the Faith by staging an attack with fake Darkenbeasts, and then flee with a very obvious trail to Sorcerer's Deep.

5. Varys was trying to raise up the Faith Militant in the Vale, and while it is slow, they have the Chosen of the Smith and the Crone with them. Currently they're doing something with the Arryn fey!baby, though neither Bloodraven or Varys could figure it out.

6. Varys has been working on driving a wedge between the Martells and the Yronwoods, so we should probably talk to the Yronwood dude while he's here. It doesn't hurt to at least get his measure. Also, news of Elia and Rhaenys' resurrection is very likely to become known to the Lannisters soon.

7. Varys intended to frame Amrelath for the assassination of the Sealord, driving a wedge between us and Braavos. Also, he was the one behind a select few Braavosi moving against us. We mostly solved that, though.

8. The Champion of the Smith is currently in the Vale forging what looks like Dragonbane weapons in preparation for fighting us. It's not clear what the Champion of the Crone is doing, but she was previously a woods witch who was spared from death on the condition of service to the Seven.

9. The Chosen of the Father, Lucan, was recently at Crakehall and worked with the Golden Shields to throw back a Deep Ones incursion. He called down angels for the task (see Rumors post). It seems likely, however, that the Lannisters might just make their own splinter of the Faith rather than relying on the Chosen of the Father.

10. Bloodraven's splinters of the Faith include: a faction that preaches that Weirwoods are trees of the Stranger and that there are a lot more gods than seven, the chill dude we met in the Riverlands, a faction that says something to the effect of "each person must be their own shepherd", etc. Also, for the septon preaching each person must be their own shepherd, according to Rumors post he was recently captured. It is recommended that he is to be publicly freed by some kind of angel to spark more rumors.

11. We learned the locations of all of Varys' agents and where precisely they could be found.

12. Lanna and Gerion Lannister appear to be angling to place Tyrion as the next Lord Paramount of the Westerlands.

13. Unfortunately little information on the Warlocks of Qarth, as they even managed to ferret out Varys' agents. Also little to no information on Castamere's laboratories.

14. Fishy, fishy things went on when the lords confronted Tywin over the Golden Shields. There is evidence that at least some of them were outright mind controlled.

15. The Farmans had a successful mission Beyond the Wall to recover lost lore from the Thenns. They would flip to us if we offer them enough. The Leffors are iffy. The Marbrands are an outright no.

16. Regarding Stannis, it's best to simply let him on the Small Council and let Robert do all the work for us in making an ass of himself to his brother. Inevitably they'll clash and Stannis will probably thrown back to either Storm's End or Dragonstone.

17. We have the name of the Brachina currently enthralling Garth the Gross and the two Bone Devils guarding it, the name of the Gilded Devil heading the cabal in the Vale which includes the Corbrays (and presumably all lesser devils therein) ((should be noted this Gilded Devil can perform divine miracles, and that it has Lamentation)), and we learned that Varys sacrificed his dragon eggs to Mammon. We should expect some kind of Fiendish Dragon at some point.

18. The Fey will approach us to bargain for the Crown of Flowers, but they need to be carefully persuaded to accept Imperium Law or else they'll just declare war on us. We have the locations of various Old Gods-friendly courts, as well as not-so-friendly courts. Also, it is possible to shape their nature with stories.

19. Garth the Green won the crown by telling a story. Also the fey won't try to steal the crown from our cloak.

20. A Bloodraven equivalent for the Others appears to have popped up, and tried to sneak a rather powerful wight into Wintertown. Thankfully, Bloodraven found out and put a stop to it. We also already wrote a letter about the danger to Lord Stark, which he received.

21. Rodrik the Reader and imported Lanternbearers and even Westermen are hunting down Drowned Men and Deep Ones, and the Westermen are studying Deep One corpses to try to understand their enemy and develop weapons against them. Also, some poorer villages have made bargains with the Deep Ones to offer up sacrifices for whatever they may need, but those villages are universally destroyed when discovered.

22. Bloodraven recommends we keep the Inquisition away from Oldtown for now and instead infiltrate the Arbor and spread slowly. Also for the Dornish Marches we're supposed to subvert various trader families as a start.

23. Varys had an insane plan to plunge the world into chaos and war and then have f!Aegon Blackfyre swoop in and save the day.

24. This was already taken care of, but Varys had a diabolic orator and several cultists poised to assassinate Benerro and frame Zherys for it, and thus keep us occupied with that. Benerro was warned, and the cultists were presumably disposed of.

25. Varys plotted to have a mob burn down a crap ton of buildings in Pentos including Braavos-owned buildings, thus making it untenable for the Sealord to negotiate with them. This was to be used with Illyrio's old contacts, whom we should have gotten intel on.

26. Varys had some plans to assassinate the leaders of Lorath and Qohor.

27. The Golden Company is heavily active east of the Bone Mountains, is led by Aegon Blackfyre who is a cleric of the sixth circle, and openly worships Tiamat. Aegon was cared for by Jon Connington. Illyrio is known by Varys to be Aegon's father.

28. Illyrio is hiding in the Shadow Fortress out of fear of us. A cabal of mages from N'ghai has moved against the Golden Company because they're anti Valyrian (very ironic). And we got intel on the strength the Golden Company wields.

29. Varys planned to assassinate the rebel Yi Tish general who styled himself as the first Orange Emperor in Trader Town. Also, Varys was unaware of the three Gilded Devils in the court of the Azure Emperor.

30. The Golden Company is responsible for the undead Sarnori arranging themselves into a parody of a kingdom. One of the undead, the Rat King, is a guard for the Shadow Fortress, and has a spellbane against Mind Blank. We also got a map in general of how to get to the Shadow Fortress and the traps along the way and inside.

31. Varys was apparently "tolerated by" the Bloodstone Emperor. We also gained knowledge of paths into the Shadow Plane.

32. The Old Gods say yes please to a plant dragon guardian. As for the adamantine mine it's in the lands of the Brunes of Brownhollow and was once a shrine to the Sky Father.

33. The Golden Company doesn't have dragon eggs, but Asshai has more than a dozen, and the court of the Azure Emperor has three (which the Golden Company has their eye on).

34. The Stranger's Chosen is unseen by Bloodraven, but apparently the Mother hasn't even selected a champion yet since she seems to be waiting for something.

35. Bloodraven advice on how to make the Imperium a pseudo-deity controlled by us.

36. After a meeting with "Dywen of the Old Gods," Lord Grafton should be properly convinced to sacrifice Corbray to the Old Gods.

37. Pycelle stumbled across the Maester conspiracy against magic (the last Grand Maester was assassinated for this), Tywin is aware of said conspiracy, and Pycelle recently decided to throw himself at our mercy, so we recruited him.

38. No pulling a Bran and bringing a Deep One, Devil, or Other to Bloodraven's weirwood. That will ruin the wards.

39. Euron intel from Bloodraven.

Awesome compilation, dude. Thanks for putting that all together for us.

firefrog600 · Mar 16, 2019

So are we going to reveal the devil stuff to the public eventually? Because its awesome for us if we are clearly destroying devils and claiming westeros for the safety if its citizens in these dark times.

Azel · Mar 16, 2019

Goldfish said:
We can give them 3,000 pounds of the stuff, but keep 1,500 for ourselves for special munitions.

Even being really conservative, a 10 pounds Liquid Ice canister fired from a Launcher should inflict at least 3d6 Cold damage on the target and 3 Cold damage to everything within a 15 feet radius. Since just about everything native to the Plane of Fire has the Fire subtype and suffers +50% damage from Cold, these would make good special ammo for the Wyverns when operating there.

We also have 100 of @Deliste's Sultan's Tribute which we can use as Launcher ammo or for bombing.

Shouldn't 10 pounds of Liquid Ice do pretty much exactly what 10 pounds of Alchemist Fire do?

As for the Tributes, I would load one of the Wyverns with them as special ammo for both launchers when the mission is likely to involve combat against capital ships. Even if the turrets are perfectly sealed, the fungus growth would hamper them from working and pretty much eliminate the gunners field of view, so it's as good as one-shotting a turret. Also, from what I recall of the Turtle Ships, they had just simple shutters and moved their weapons like age of sail cannons. So even hitting the nearby hull would be enough for the fungus to grow right into the hull and either killing the crew or damaging the cannons.

Either way, they make great precision weapons. For bombing runs they are a bit expensive though, so I would use them for CAS runs instead.

@Duesal, much appreciated. Expect annotations in the near future.

Edit: On a second thought, the Tributes wouldn't have the penetration to embed themselves in armor and just bounce of. @Goldfish, any good and fast acting adhesives we can brew up?

Goldfish · Mar 16, 2019

Azel said:
Shouldn't 10 pounds of Liquid Ice do pretty much exactly what 10 pounds of Alchemist Fire do?

As for the Tributes, I would load one of the Wyverns with them as special ammo for both launchers when the mission is likely to involve combat against capital ships. Even if the turrets are perfectly sealed, the fungus growth would hamper them from working and pretty much eliminate the gunners field of view, so it's as good as one-shotting a turret. Also, from what I recall of the Turtle Ships, they had just simple shutters and moved their weapons like age of sail cannons. So even hitting the nearby hull would be enough for the fungus to grow right into the hull and either killing the crew or damaging the cannons.

Either way, they make great precision weapons. For bombing runs they are a bit expensive though, so I would use them for CAS runs instead.

@Duesal, much appreciated. Expect annotations in the near future.

I don't recall what 10 pounds of Alchemist's Fire does. Ah, here it is.

Alchemical Fire: This hard, ceramic canister of alchemist's fire can be used as ammunition in catapults and trebuchets. When it hits its target square, it deals 4d6 points of fire damage to each creature and wooden structure within 5 feet of the target space, and each creature must make a DC 20 Reflex saving throw or catch on fire (wooden objects automatically catch on fire). Every creature and wooden object within the area between 5 and 30 feet of the target space must make a DC 20 Reflex saving throw or take half the fire damage, but they do not catch on fire.

Well that's unfortunate, because Liquid Ice weighs twice as much per unit as Alchemist's Fire.

I guess 2d6 Cold damage to the target and 1d6 to everything within 20 feet isn't bad, especially with the Cold Vulnerability of Fire subtype creatures.

I agree with your dudes for the Sultan's Tribute, though I think we should equip each Wyvern with a payload for maximum saturation in as short a time as possible. Six launched in a single round is better than two, after all. There are bound to be multiple ships we would want to cover.

Duesal · Mar 16, 2019

-[] We won't have the time to go after the Court Mage's ship this month, but we ask that Yrten and Siduri keep an eye on it nonetheless because we're hoping we'll have time to get it the month after on its way back to the Brazen Throne. While they're at it we need them to try to gather more intel for us on its strength, its crew, what they might be looking for and where they're going, etc.
--[] Also give Yrten and Siduri XXXXX IM with the express purpose of expanding their web of contacts in the Plane of Fire and keeping us up-to-date with monthly reports on military movements, the transportation of various resources, and news on any important targets (like Zathir's ship, the prison that held Bloom, and latest this Court Mage's ship).

@Azel, when you make the plan would you mind adding something along these lines? I agree that a week is way too long to justify spending time on, but I'm hoping to at least have the choice to go for it the month after. I'm kind of suspicious the reagents are needed for the Grand Sultan's ascension to godhood. It's just a hunch, though.

Azel · Mar 16, 2019

Goldfish said:
I don't recall what 10 pounds of Alchemist's Fire does. Ah, here it is.

Well that's unfortunate, because Liquid Ice weighs twice as much per unit as Alchemist's Fire.

I guess 2d6 Cold damage to the target and 1d6 to everything within 20 feet isn't bad, especially with the Cold Vulnerability of Fire subtype creatures.

I agree with your dudes for the Sultan's Tribute, though I think we should equip each Wyvern with a payload for maximum saturation in as short a time as possible. Six launched in a single round is better than two, after all. There are bound to be multiple ships we would want to cover.

The issue is that the Wyvern can't pack more then one special ammo type per Launcher. The feeding mechanism would be too complicated and if I'm honest, even switching between Abundant Ammo steel bolts and the Bag of Holding magazine is pushing it in complexity.

So if we load the Wyverns full of tributes, we have a lot of capability to disable a capital vessel, but nothing to go for the kill.

At most, I would suggest a half and half load-out. One launcher with explosives, one with Tributes.

Goldfish · Mar 16, 2019

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