Official announcement to @everyone, please for the love of good, drop at least one-liner write-ups and tag me if you think of something to keep in mind in this quest.
For one, I have no idea who any of these people are
[X] You have taken interest in several people... Talk to:
-[X] Roose Bolton of the Dreadfort
-[X] William Mooten of Maidenpool
-[X] The ruler of Saath
-[X] The ruler of Omber
-[X] Shella Went, last of her line, of Harrenhall
--[X] Take a dive in the Gods Eye to locate the corpses of the dragons who died there during the Dance.
--[X] Speak with the Green Men.
Official announcement to @everyone, please for the love of good, drop at least one-liner write-ups and tag me if you think of something to keep in mind in this quest.
For one, I have no idea who any of these people are
yet Azel asked to keep note of that, so I am tracking them..
So, @Duesal, please formulate what I should add now.
I genuinely have no idea about the Royce thing.
Basically we found out from Bloodraven that a few devils were defiling some random grave, and they had the Royce family sword (Valyrian Steel). We had some vague plans about sending Waymar and his brothers to go capture the sacrifices and get the sword.
Official announcement to @everyone, please for the love of good, drop at least one-liner write-ups and tag me if you think of something to keep in mind in this quest.
For one, I have no idea who any of these people are
yet Azel asked to keep note of that, so I am tracking them..
So, @Duesal, please formulate what I should add now.
I genuinely have no idea about the Royce thing.
Thankfully you can find almost all of these people on the ASOIAF wiki (I think). As for why we're talking to them, I seem to recall Roose Bolton being pitched as an intelligent evil administrator who could be a functional part of the imperium assuming it could be impressed on him to, you know, stop flaying people to death. As for the others, not sure.
I recall Harrenhall had a bunch of ghosts, maybe Shella West was related to them somehow?
Official announcement to @everyone, please for the love of good, drop at least one-liner write-ups and tag me if you think of something to keep in mind in this quest.
For one, I have no idea who any of these people are
yet Azel asked to keep note of that, so I am tracking them..
So, @Duesal, please formulate what I should add now.
I genuinely have no idea about the Royce thing.
I'm gonna keep it real with you Egoo, I don't know one fourth of the shit we're doing on any given day. I just read the updates, do some inference, and then pick a choice and pray.
Like I know some key things, but those are mostly loot and loot generation related, possibly a few of our larger plans to fuck with the other powers.
Other than that I've got all the knowledge of a gnat in a hurricane.
I know exactly what I voted for, if you disagree thats your right, but appat I don't have a right to keep my vote and I need to.be told how to do so. Azel was even ran out of voting temporarily before.
My participation isn't the most influential but it's exactly this tagging shit to change my valid vote that bugs me.
Hey we're still in the planning phases of Azel's pet Demigod, right? I had an idea involving it, but it would require it to a) have an alignment and b) clbe capable of holding a conversation, and I don't know if either of those are possible.
Hey @Duesal, could you please put the info about Bloodraven killing the previous Chosen into a threadmark somewhere? Maybe the rumour post, ot the Bloodraven info post?
Basically we found out from Bloodraven that a few devils were defiling some random grave, and they had the Royce family sword (Valyrian Steel). We had some vague plans about sending Waymar and his brothers to go capture the sacrifices and get the sword.
...I highly appreciate you compiling all that, but my point was rather that I can't possibly remember if we did, or didn't, do something, so I'm taking everyone's notes on that an then keep track of stuff
I know exactly what I voted for, if you disagree thats your right, but appat I don't have a right to keep my vote and I need to.be told how to do so. Azel was even ran out of voting temporarily before.
My participation isn't the most influential but it's exactly this tagging shit to change my valid vote that bugs me.
...I'm just as disgruntled with Azel leaving (possibly permanently) as the next guy, but...
What's wrong with that line of tags TNE had?
Sure, the point presented didn't resonate well with many people it was brought up, I myself disagree with it, but it was merely a convenient way of taking everyone's attention.
You really shouldn't go back to lurking from such a small thing. Everyone's participation is appreciated, and you have your bits of insight yourself
Hey @Duesal, could you please put the info about Bloodraven killing the previous Chosen into a threadmark somewhere? Maybe the rumour post, ot the Bloodraven info post?
"How many such champions are there, and where did you last see them?" you ask urgently.
"Seven, there must be seven at least, one for each face of their god," Bloodraven replies with certainty. "Of them I know of the Maiden's Chosen in Old Town having braved the depths beneath the Hightower, a boy chosen of the Smith whom I glimpsed in the Westerlands, and an old woman who... was the Crone's chosen."
"What happened to her?" Dany asks.
"She accosted a friend of Edmure Tully, young heir to the Riverlads, named him thief and even tried to use magic against him. Obviously Lord Tully could not stand for such and outrage. She lost her head, her followers were set wandering and were even excommunicated by the High Septon for their 'heretical' beliefs."
"How were common armsmen able to slay a god's chosen?" you ask suspiciously.
"The friend to the young Tully heir is a singer from Skaagos, with his own peculiar gifts," Bloodraven replies, satisfied.
I remember one Chosen of the Warrior who got his brain eaten by Ilithids after watching all his companions drown in an old ruin around the time you guys first went to Crackclaw Point. Bloodraven led him into it
Then there was a Chosen of the Smith who was killed by redcaps after they were warned to expect company
Another Chosen of the Warrior just died to garden variety poison put in his drink by local hedge witch who had just revived a dream that he would be a great threat to him.
That's all I can reember right now besides that Chosen of the Crone you mentioned.
Hey we're still in the planning phases of Azel's pet Demigod, right? I had an idea involving it, but it would require it to a) have an alignment and b) clbe capable of holding a conversation, and I don't know if either of those are possible.
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.
So I guess we're cleaning that up. Also @egoo my dumb wrestling mirror vision show fell off the minor actions list. Assuming that wasn't for a good reason, can I send you the action again?
So I guess we're cleaning that up. Also @egoo my dumb wrestling mirror vision show fell off the minor actions list. Assuming that wasn't for a good reason, can I send you the action again?
[] Change something of what you had seen, the past is dead but the future is yet open?
-[] Limit the use of Weapons of Mass Destruction - No deployment of WMDs, tactical or otherwise, with a civilian population as the primary target.
-[] Write in: Silver of Justice - There is a truth in what you have been shown, but also a message of how you have chosen to make some useful and others food for the engine of Empire. With the summoning of the Preceptor Archons, and the rituals you have created to free Fiends and more from that which binds them inevitably to the planes which supply their power, might it not also be possible to see some who are driven to consort with such powers recovered from their folly instead of simply given unto the snake or tree?
--[] Intent here is to fold this into a Minor Action this or next turn, involving cultist rehabilitation and redemption in the same line as we're going to be using the Preceptors anyway. This would be primarily an Archon concern in terms of planning when it comes to it, and I feel functions as a Minor Action because we've already got the rehabilitation systems in place. This is just extending them a little.
-[X] In addition, commit to a Minor Action to sit down with the heads of the Inquisition and bring up treatment of prisoners, along the following lines. Note: what follows is directional, but not true policy. We'd wish to consult with the Inquisition's leaders, the Companions and probably others before we chair this meeting. This is simply the spark. A modified version will probably be heavily involved in the eventual conversation.
--[] This act of dehumanization shows a critical crack within the institution of the Inquisition. If they make a habit of dehumanizing their targets, then they no longer give their actions the self-reflection and judgement that they desperately need. The Inquisition wields a tremendous amount of power. They can easily decree the life or death of many. As such, it is crucial that they are at every moment aware of their actions, and asking themselves - Is this truly necessary? Is this truly the right choice?
--[] When you dehumanize your opponents, or by default put your goals above any means you might employ, then you do not do that. She becomes "just a cultist", not "just a human who coveted with demons". There is a huge difference between the two, because one is a caricature, and the other is a living being with emotions and sapience - the same kind of being you are. To kill a cultist is easy. To kill a human, even when the circumstances might justify it, is not.
--[] If the Inquisition cannot be bothered to do something as simple as ensure that their prisoners do not have to suffer unduly, then why should we trust them with the power to spy and intervene in the life of Imperial citizens?
You wake dry-eyed. The pain is gone, the visions spent, and there in the dark many things that had been brushed aside in the rush to raise your kingdom clear before your eyes. A strange mix of gratitude and resentment roil in your stomach, the first for having been shown where you were unable... unwilling to look before, the second for the presumption, that one of the Fourteen should speak of hypocrisy and presumption. Much rather would you have heard all this from your Companions, your mother, and doubly so would you have preferred to find them yourself, but whatever the cause and the purpose you know now, and with knowing comes action. You draw a sheet of parchment and draft your suggestions for the Inquisition to Garin.
First that those consorting with dark powers will be given at least a sliver of a chance to reform, as much as you can afford without more risk to the innocent. The Archons had reformed such lost souls before, hopefully they can do again. If Fiends should be given a chance at clemency than surely they should not be counted beyond hope from the start. One more thing you ask in the letter is that no matter how heavy or how light the hand of their dark masters seems to hang upon them they are all to be treated with dignity and as much care as can be spared for safety's sake. You do not want another inquisitor to ask the question you had heard in the vision, though you will have to be careful in how you implement these rules.
Finally you resolve to not use weapons like the fungus you used in Lannisport against unarmed people.
The other things you have been shown, the fire and the blood, these you do not surrender, more will die on Dark Sister's edge and more dragonsteel will be wrought, and flame is just another weapon in your hand just as it is that of your army, and you will not flinch from its use.
A resolution the servants of Tiamat will not enjoy...
***
Dany notices something off about you, then she sees the letter to Garin. It does not take her long to guess what might have prompted policy decisions in the middle of the night: "You dreamed something."
"By the auspices of Syrax, yes," you reply, hoping to leave it at that. Alas that it is to be a vain one.
"What did she show you?" your sister presses.
"Everything she feared a foe might show me to make me falter, the places I had failed in, the things I did not want to fully acknowledge to myself. The past is done and nothing can change it now, but there are..."
"That bitch," she curses under her breath so that your mother cannot hear her. "She showed you what an enemy would show you as they would show it, didn't she? There is no reason to drop something like that here and now except to prove she can, to show her power."
"To show her worth also," you add grudgingly.
She waves the distinction aside and asks: "How are you feeling, really?"
You pause for a moment to take stock of yourself behind the smiling facade that comes to you readily now, even in the most trying of times. "Drained... tired as if I have just run laps of the city walls, not regretful. I think it was the regrets that blinded me in the first place, they were comfortable, familiar, and easy. As long as I still felt them I thought..." You remember your words to Valaena when you had handed her the knife. "I thought that it absolved me in some way, that it proved I had not become worse."
Dany nods seriously, then there is a moment of surprise and budding dark suspicion. Had she fallen prey to the same trap? you wonder but do not ask aloud. She will tell you in her own time, for now battle is at hand, just as soon as you can find your allies for the venture.
***
It takes most of the morning to arrange for Lord Hightower to leave his keep with none the wiser, save for the double he has set in his place—his youngest brother. Whatever else can be said of the man the news that one of his brothers may be disloyal had not driven him to distrust the rest of his family, not that you had left the matter to trust alone, making use of careful divination to ensure your ruse is not pierced.
Finally around noon you find yourself in an inn, and not the sort you might have imagined grizzled warriors and protectors of the city to patronize. The Quill and Tankard is an old and proud establishment, rich too to judge from the masterfully crafted iron-wrought lanterns that illuminate a common room filled with novices dicing, drinking, and pestering the servers.
"Here?" Ser Richard snorts.
"In the back..." Ser Baelor says, a little too loudly. It's clear he has little experience at partaking in this sort of intrigue, though at least he does not seem to disdain it.
The backroom holds three men, two of them familiar to you. The first is Tobyn who had been mixed up in the Brune affair, the second is the one-legged man who introduces himself laconically as 'Yohn', not even bothering with a moniker of any sort. The third hooded and cloaked man you mark for a mage from the way his hands are free and his fingers reach for the small pouches at his belt.
"Loras the Lamb," he says with a nod that moves his hood just enough to see his left cheek burned and blackened by acid all the way up to his ear. The fact that he still had his eye on that side makes you suspect the acid had been carefully poured and not splashed in battle, perhaps as torture... or to remove something that had become attached to him.
Sandor and Ser Richard quickly maneuver the chest you had brought onto the table so that they can see your gifts and you can explain them. With every word the smiles of the three men widen a little more, until they seem less grim and more filled with good cheer... of the bloody sort.
Alchemist's Fire (x100)
Antiplague (x10)
Antitoxin (x10)
Auran Mask (x10)
Fungal Stun Vials (x20)
Healing Salve (x100)
After some hesitation none of the Lantern Bearers balk at learning what Tiamat is from Dany, but what they do object to is not having any representative to deal with the tainted sept. Ser Baelor's word or no, you are a stranger, and one with enough power to make them all wary. Luckily your silver tongue does not desert you, and you manage to spin a convincing enough argument about the dangers of facing unknown foes that they ask for no more than to inspect the site afterwards, leaving you with nothing to do but plan tactics.
How do you approach the three raids?
[] Write in plans
OOC: What you have to work with here is a Ranger 11 (no magic), a Fighter 9, and a Witch 9.
