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

Eleventh Day of the Tenth Month 293 AC

"End it!" you shout over the sound of steel and stone. Whatever may be left of the ancient warrior you will not find it in this warped reflection yearning for oblivion. That final gift at least you can give, or rather Vrath does.

As the assassin's blade turns red as blood in the light of the binding magics to part the puppet's head from its shoulders, it speaks but a three words: "Remember the fall." Honest advice, a final shard of emptiness cast to take root in your minds, or perhaps something in between?

A moment later Vee manifests again where she had stood, just as the corpse collapses to its knees and falls apart into a wave of oily black slime. "Fuck, watch where you're pointing that!" she shouts, echoed a moment later by Malarys, though laced with less profanity.

Though one of the two-headed constructs does finally manage to pierce Ser Richard protections before you can tangle them in their shadows and command them to halt, soon enough the battle ends, the elementals fade, leaving the eight of you standing in the half-wrecked armory filled with rising dust and Lya's conjured wind. The caretaker slides off to halt the earth-mover while Vee sees to healing Malarys and Ser Richard.

Once the hall is no longer the stage of a battle you take the time to look around at the arms and armor of the ancient serpentfolk. The puppet had left nothing behind but his daggers and breastplate, both as black as his scales had been, and a belt of yellow silk threaded with silver gleaming dully among the foulness that looks nothing like any of the other works of the Children of Yss you had seen.

"A gift from Yi Ti," Dany guesses, sounding wistful as she runs it through her fingers. "A pity to see it defiled by that..."

"And that the body did not endure long enough to pass into the forge," Malarys finishes pragmatically. Without another word he takes the arms and armor to hand to you, but the rest of the contents of the armory prove to be more difficult to recover...

Row upon row of ancient bronze breastplates, thirty in all are lined across the wall. What seems at first to be green tarnish flows instead into arcane knotwork that marks them as the arms of the Citadel Guard, old even when the city was young. Alas that only one in three of them holds any lingering magic, though even those that are 'merely' works of exquisite mundane craftsmanship should prove a boon to Riz'Neth's colony, his growing colony hopefully. Beside them are glaives with Adamantine edges crafted for facing the titan lizards of the jungle as much as any mortal foe, and bows of Duskwood to arm each warrior so armored.

Standing on three hexagonal daises in the center of the room are a Horacalum scimitar, a shield of Inubrix wrought with an image of the night sky, and an ornate Djezet mace bound in gold, the weapon of a sorcerer-priest.

"These cannot be taken from their places by any save he who is acknowledged as heir of the city," the caretaker explains almost apologetically. "The makers left word that once the eggs are hatched and the young ones past their Third Molting that they may arm themselves against the world."

"And what of those others among your kindred that have survived all this time in an unbroken line to the makers?" you ask. "Are they not deserving to be the heirs of such treasures?"

"That is not a choice for me to make..." It gives a shrug, the gesture strange indeed on one who possesses neither shoulders nor limbs, but still honest you suspect. "Bring the lord of the lost before the spirit of the spiral and it will judge him by the makers' words."

"What of the other mechanisms?" Lya motions towards the constructs and the array of gears and parts that is piled in the corners. "Are we not even to use those to battle the darkness that threatens this place?"

"That is permitted," the caretaker agrees after a moment of hesitation.

What do you do next?

[] Speak to the controlling spirit

[] Secure the hatchery

[] Secure the library

[] Return to the shaft and fight the Spirit of Oblivion

OOC: Sorry this took so long, I was busy IRL again. The enchanted armor is +2 Bastion Reinforced Segmented Breastplates, the glaives are +2 keen Adamantine weapons, and the bows are +2 Penetrating Duskwood Longbows. The Skymetal weapons are going to take actually using the Identification Ritual on.