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

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TalonofAnathrax said:
His plan involved inviting 2 evil gods into the world, while empowering a Good one and strengthening his forces. Meanwhile he was also playing the evil ones off one another, and he had enough intel and power to easily cripple Tiamat's followers if needed.

Honestly, Varys had a pile of successes:
  • He managed to power-level Aegon and his Companions very well. He also did a good job recruiting powerful casters.
  • He made Aegon's faction very resilient, with multiple backup fortresses that even Viserys the Dragon King is afraid of attacking head-on (shadow plane, undead...) and that aren't in Tiamat's Power. Seriously, while he's used Tiamat in the past, his faction isn't all Clerics of Tiamat. If they all rebel, they have enough Arcane casters and gear to make it out. And they'll probably love crafting all those Dragon and Demon corpses into useful stuff!
  • He made (well, helped make) the followers of the Seven strong, angry, and kept them aimed well off him.
  • His web of intrigue was amazing, obviously.
  • While he did spread devils around, they were stuck fighting every other faction. We don't know if he set Chosen against them or anything, but the "let other factions keep the devils in check" plan was actually working fine. You all call him insane, but results speak for themselves!
Long-term, here's how things could have gone right for him:
  • Devils fail to conquer the world (duh, literally everyone was against them and they kept losing big pieces. And check out the kind of absolute monster Outsiders the Chosen have on hand!). While devils have had years to set up small plots, backups and minor cults ready to bring the fight back, Varys has spent ages making the Faith stronger and radicalizing the population. It's harder to set up devil cults when the countryside is full of zealous Seven-worshippers.
  • His plans to kill us and Companions one by one were stupid. His plan to kill us all together was "when Viserys next attacks, bring enough Aegon-followers to make it a CR-appropriate encounter and pop out a whole second CR-appropriate encounter of mighty devils". That stood a real chance of killing us and taking our soul, especially if Aegon really is a counterspell-focused Cleric.
  • His plan to backstab Tiamat was simple enough: just backstab the Tiamat-minions you have on hand, it'll work. She's been terrible at force concentration so far, and while leaving various Bitch Queen minions scattered around the setting is a long-term risk, a potential Stronk Faith (tm) could easily have taken them down. They have Planetars and mighty Chosen, after all. And Aegon & Co are strong PCs with appropriate gear, too.
These steps were all risky, but they weren't nearly as insane as you're all making him sound. He was desperate and risk-taking, not incompetent.

Of course his inability to chill out and accept us as King was what made him truly mad. We basically are what he wants to mould F!Aegon into, after all.
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Yeah, I disagree with almost all of this.

1. Those powerful casters are mostly insane Tiamat cultists who sacrifice innocents by the hundreds, similarly twisted wizards, or flat out fooled like Anu the Warforged was.
2. I disagree that he made Aegon's faction resilient. Having backup fortresses is great and all, but at the same time he's seeded his entire force with people he considers enemies. While we're wary of attacking the fortresses on a whim, it's more that we're dealing with other things. If we had the time the fortresses would be toast.
3. He's primed the followers of the Seven, but he's also gambling that they won't be equally unwelcoming of f!Aegon. As if Lucan and Danelle wouldn't eventually find out what kind of shit f!Aegon and Varys have been up to. We can see from Lucan that the man is supremely unenthusiastic about all things Targaryen.
4. The amazing web of intrigue also solely hinged on Varys, because he had zero allies that he trusted, because he surrounded himself with his enemies. Remember how we dismantled literally every aspect of his spy network after capturing him?
5. I disagree. We know that both Tiamat and Mammon were actively plotting to get rid of Varys. That's not "working fine," that's living on a knife's edge.
6. Devils failing to conquer the world isn't the point at all. Sure they're not openly ruling the plane, but good luck if you've got dozens of cults spread across the world. Yes, the Faith is getting militant. That doesn't mean they stand a chance with Hell turning its full attention to the Planes of Balance.
7. f!Aegon was only a Cleric of the Sixth Circle a few months ago. Sure he can grow, but the chances of him gathering his own companions to match ours, especially when by all accounts there was no mention of such from Varys? That's unlikely as hell. He could summon devils and dragons, we're fully expecting that which is why we're going total overkill in turn, but he doesn't have the firepower in terms of companions. Especially when most of the powerful people in his retinue happen to be untrustworthy to the extreme.
8. Backstabbing Tiamat could work, sure. But with half of the Golden Company being Tiamat Cultists, and with the Golden Company actively hatching and releasing True Reds into the world (the default kind, not the sane kind like Amrelath), they should have fun cleaning up after that.

The gist of my stance is that Varys was ambitious as fuck and had way too many knives in the air, and even if everything went to plan for him he'd still have multiple powerful factions aligned against him who are perfectly poised to strike at f!Aegon. He can't just sweep away devils, Tiamat will always be a major concern, the Seven won't follow along placidly, etc.
TalonofAnathrax said:
Their "temporary" victory lasted longer than any other Empire ever (Yi-Ti is a pile of Empires wearing the same coat, not one Empire). AFAIK it lasted for literal millenia, which is simply insane (especially compared to IRL ones!).

And Duesal, "it didn't end well for them" is a terrible argument. Our Empire probably won't end well either - that's the point of Empire-endings. Eventually the unthinkable happens, and after ages of WINNING you somehow lose. It sucks.
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It was a victory that was built atop their inevitable defeat, with the Doom rooted into the foundations right from the start. I don't really consider that a success.
 
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Crake said:
CROWNLANDS!
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Please, just...
One more tiny moment to clear up.
After this, its all yours.


[X] Visit the detained servants of the Drunken God that the Inquisition managed to, according to them, "free from the will of a heretic".
-[X] Get an account of their actions, the cleric's actions, and attempt to understand the underlying truth - is Zagreus truly a safe God to keep as part of Imperium legally, and if there is any profit that can be made in relationship with him.
-[X] Complete and through questioning of the body had of course been done already, from cleric's personal history and motives, to methods used and magical/divine knowledge.

I want to know what that whole mess was about.
 
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egoo said:
Please, just...
One more tiny moment to clear up.
After this, its all yours.

[X] Visit the servants of the Drunken God that the Inquisition managed to, according to them, "free from the will of a heretic".
-[X] Get an account of their actions, the cleric's actions, and attempt to understand the underlying truth - is Zagreus truly a safe God to keep as part of Imperium legally, and if there is any profit that can be made in relationship with him.
-[X] Complete and through questioning of the body had of course been done already, from clerk's personal history and motives, to methods used and magical/divine knowledge.

I want to know what that whole mess was about.
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Since this is mostly a report I can probably handle this as part of a larger update, whether combining it with your next action or another report.
 
My hope for our Empire is that we have a second "WINNING" hiding under the first one, so when they go for our throat, a even greater beast is born which immediately consumes the corpse of the first, and, hopefully, the one who killed it.
 
DragonParadox said:
Since this is mostly a report I can probably handle this as part of a larger update, whether combining it with your next action or another report.
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*sigh*
I just wanted some interaction with Divine servants that are objectively obliged to us for the service and we could diplomance a bit...

But sure, whatever.
It will feel a bit anticlimactic an ending, that's all.

[X] Crake
Not going to push the vote through after this point either.
 
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egoo said:
*sigh*
I just wanted some interaction with Divine servants that are objectively obliged to us for the service and we could diplomance a bit...

But sure, whatever.
It will feel a bit anticlimactic an ending, that's all.

[X] Crake
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Oh I see, yeah of you want to hire them in some manner that will probably take a vote. I thought you guys just wanted a report.
 
Duesal said:
With the death of Jon Arryn all the Crownlander Lords who were previously backing him are now open to be snatched up by either us or the Lannisters. @Crake and I have been eyeing them for a while now.
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Crake said:
To snatch away a few more Houses from the Lannisters and Faith, and probably see the reactions to our propaganda campaign first hand.
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Ahhh politics. I do enjoy the propaganda reactions. Has the country devolved into civil war yet?

Edit: Or rather increased unrest?
 
Crake said:
And the next day...


See latest changes at the bottom.

Blount appears to have been isolated by their own shame and lack of a reasonable third party to ally with.

Chelsted at least outwardly seems to have chosen to directly align with House Baratheon, or rather whoever sits on the Iron Throne, since whoever sits there has direct leverage on their heir.

Chyttering seems to be trying to go about finding contacts to the east for some reason.

Farring is either paranoid, or the Maester Conspiracy tried to pull something at an inopportune time for them, and he decided (quite reasonably) someone was out to get him.

Mallery wasn't covered in the latest Bloodraven update.

Rambton and Sunglass are sticking up for the High Septon.

Tygett continues to be murderously rustled.

I think we should meet with the current lords of Blount, Chyttering, Mallery first, then investigate Farring and see if we can pull him loose, we have reasons to be paranoid about Maesters as well and maybe we can pin something on them. Another subtle supporter for tearing down that institution wouldn't be bad.

Chelsted unfortunately even if they weren't at all loyal to the Crown has done the stupid and made sure their heir was readily available for a shanking, so they're a bit more trouble than they're worth without some extensive planning.

Assassinate Guncer Sunglass and use one of our connections to get the heir on our side.

Need to know more about Lord Rambton to have an idea of what to do with him. I wouldn't do the above assassination without some semblance of what the High Septon's political strategy is, anyway.
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[X] It is time to secure our hold on the Crownlands by enticing what remains of Jon Arryn's former faction and welding them to our own.
-[X] Bring Rhaella, Rina and Ser Richard.
-[X] We will begin with House Chyttering as the easiest, given their inclinations toward gaining Eastern contacts.
-[X] Next we will try for House Mallery as a relative unknown.
-[X] Then the shamed House Blount, still isolated given their recent missteps and loss of patron.
-[X] Then we will investigate House Farring to see what can be made of the situation.
-[X] If there is time, we will investigate the High Septon's faction and see if we can pull away Rambton and Sunglass. Ser Denys used to squire for a knight of the latter, perhaps he could put us into contact?
--[X] We will also observe the results of our propaganda campaign firsthand.
 
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