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

Twenty-Fifth Day of the Tenth Month 293 AC

While the battle still rages on Dany tries to seek out the mage's sanctum where he might safely rest his body while his soul wanders the ship. Alas, that proves too little for the spell to take root, and it fades away stillborn. Perhaps, as Xor points out, the mage had more than one such hiding place secured aboard the ship, but in any case there can be only one body. It is that to which you set your mind upon in turn by a spell in the moment shaped. Secret compartment besides the keel of the ship, can only be reached by transmuting one's form into mist or smoke, the answer slips into your mind upon the fading hiss of some long dead dragon, seeing all yet knowing nothing.

The five of your race through the ship, at times having to fight your way through the last of the crew, but never for long. The spirit had gone out of the slaves, though they still prefer to die on Shaitan blades than whatever fate their collars hold. "We should free them now that the fighting's dying down," Dany says. "They would probably surrender..."

"It would take a great deal of power to free so many," you point out. "Even with the Efreeti dead, Valyria is hardly safe to travel through."

"It is no more dangerous than when you went to Lyceos, and you could not work spells of the Ninth Circle then," your sister counters. "How many lives are we going to pay for that thin sliver of safety? I can certainly do without it."

"I also," Xor points out softly, obviously not wishing to intrude on the conversation but needing to make his position clear just the same.

A hail of steel-tipped crossbow bolts cuts off the discussion before you can reply, but you know that Dany will not forget it. She makes a point of casting your foes into enchanted slumber rather than killing them.

By the time you make it into the hold Lya, Malarys, Zherys, and Melisandre are already there, having opened the compartment though unfortunately not quite fast enough. The compartment is empty of both the body and any arcane paraphernalia it may have held. Reaching out to the splintered boards for a glimpse of the past reveals the mage's familiar, a petty Asura no more powerful than an imp using its lingering connection to the soulless corpse to possess it, and it frantically read out a stolen scroll to slip between the boards of the ship.

"At least it wasn't a bloody Quasit," you grumble under your breath to Siduri and Zherys' surprise.

Melisandre had obviously heard the story somewhere for she only smiles and notes, "It would doubtlessly be something of a shock to the Archmage of the Brazen Throne to have one of his most skilled apprentices replaced with a thieving Fiend, a diversion he can ill afford under present circumstances, but one which pride may well drive him to follow."

"Aye, the ships are a greater prize than anything the sneak could carry off," Yrten is quick to point out. "Never heard of any raider carrying off half-a-dozen sword ships and living to tell the tale. 'Course this ain't really just raiding anymore, is it?" he finishes, running his fingers through his flaming beard in satisfaction. "Pity the Golden Wind couldn't be here for the fight."

"Do you want to put holes in her that badly?" Siduri scoffs in what sounds like a well trod argument. "Remember that we are the ones paying for repairs, not to mention injury and death payments," the mage adds to your surprise. You had not really considered how the corsair ship was being run, satisfied that it was, but you suppose that as scarce as trustworthy hands are on the Sea of Fire it makes sense for even the most avaricious captains to treat their crew well if they want to keep being captains.

What do you do next?

[] Use Miracles to free as many of the remaining crew as you can

[] Split the spoils and plan what to do next
-[] Write in

[] Write in

OOC: It looks like my dice have some sort of odd liking to CR 2 Fiends of all sorts. The Tripurasura needed to roll 25 for Knowledge (Arcana) (+8 modifier) and 20 for its Spellcraft (+5 modifier) to pull off the possession in a sort of ad hoc ritual. It managed both.