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

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@DragonParadox given how little word we've seen back from the Conspiracy since they embedded that one spy in the Scholarum, did we spook them or what? I guess technically the last actual move they really made was trying to poison Lord Brune (that we know of) and that ended up with a Lantern Bearer going back and telling his own Citadel contact about the move the Conspiracy made (or one of them), and the last last word we got back on that was that there were Maesters fist fighting each other over "scholarly disagreements" suspiciously just when that Lantern Bearer came back to Old Town.

Which is making me think that the reason we're not ankle deep in Conspiracy shenanigans (besides an admittedly rather intimidating, well funded and well-equipped Anti-Espionage apparatus) is because they're caught up in some political in-fighting. Like Viserys has blasted some PR across the continent that it's just the really McBaddies like Tywin who are in his cross-hairs, even someone like the Hound was trusted enough to swear an oath to his sister. His royal sister and de facto heir.

God damn I love our PR. It must be really intimidating for a social build enemy to go up against us. It's not just pure diplomacy rolls after all, it's reputation and we manage our reputation better than enemies have ever besmirched it.
 
Crake said:
@DragonParadox given how little word we've seen back from the Conspiracy since they embedded that one spy in the Scholarum, did we spook them or what? I guess technically the last actual move they really made was trying to poison Lord Brune (that we know of) and that ended up with a Lantern Bearer going back and telling his own Citadel contact about the move the Conspiracy made (or one of them), and the last last word we got back on that was that there were Maesters fist fighting each other over "scholarly disagreements" suspiciously just when that Lantern Bearer came back to Old Town.

Which is making me think that the reason we're not ankle deep in Conspiracy shenanigans (besides an admittedly rather intimidating, well funded and well-equipped Anti-Espionage apparatus) is because they're caught up in some political in-fighting. Like Viserys has blasted some PR across the continent that it's just the really McBaddies like Tywin who are in his cross-hairs, even someone like the Hound was trusted enough to swear an oath to his sister. His royal sister and de facto heir.

God damn I love our PR. It must be really intimidating for a social build enemy to go up against us. It's not just pure diplomacy rolls after all, it's reputation and we manage our reputation better than enemies have ever besmirched it.
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The Maester Civil War, when getting an academic paper successfully peer reviewed involved the possibility of open combat, and one had to be on the look out for weaponized ravens.
 
Crake said:
@DragonParadox given how little word we've seen back from the Conspiracy since they embedded that one spy in the Scholarum, did we spook them or what? I guess technically the last actual move they really made was trying to poison Lord Brune (that we know of) and that ended up with a Lantern Bearer going back and telling his own Citadel contact about the move the Conspiracy made (or one of them), and the last last word we got back on that was that there were Maesters fist fighting each other over "scholarly disagreements" suspiciously just when that Lantern Bearer came back to Old Town.

Which is making me think that the reason we're not ankle deep in Conspiracy shenanigans (besides an admittedly rather intimidating, well funded and well-equipped Anti-Espionage apparatus) is because they're caught up in some political in-fighting. Like Viserys has blasted some PR across the continent that it's just the really McBaddies like Tywin who are in his cross-hairs, even someone like the Hound was trusted enough to swear an oath to his sister. His royal sister and de facto heir.

God damn I love our PR. It must be really intimidating for a social build enemy to go up against us. It's not just pure diplomacy rolls after all, it's reputation and we manage our reputation better than enemies have ever besmirched it.
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That is distinctly posibile, though without eyes in Oldtown Viserys can only speculate IC.
 
@Crake has inspired me for the shittiest what-if ever : what if you were Robert Baratheon at quest start? Viserys hates you, your position is surprisingly terrible, and you're married to Cersei Lannister.
 
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DragonParadox said:
but it would be wisest I think to ask for the aid of all the lesser spirits first."
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Ah, fuck, I kinda forgot about something.

@DragonParadox, would Fey count as such?

Yes, the Deities-related stuff doesn't mesh well with them - but I wanted to go to Orphne at the start of the next month and simply check if they have some means of further empowering the trap against Tiamat - or at least getting us a "safety net" in case she steamrolls through all our efforts on a nat100, in case they can't empower the WoS further.

DragonParadox said:
the path to Tiamat's fortress now open
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I'm not sure I quite follow that, @DragonParadox.
We now have an entrance we know of beyond the "main" one, guarded by that Mindblank-through-seeing Undead? Or something?
 
Crake said:
@DragonParadox given how little word we've seen back from the Conspiracy since they embedded that one spy in the Scholarum, did we spook them or what? I guess technically the last actual move they really made was trying to poison Lord Brune (that we know of) and that ended up with a Lantern Bearer going back and telling his own Citadel contact about the move the Conspiracy made (or one of them), and the last last word we got back on that was that there were Maesters fist fighting each other over "scholarly disagreements" suspiciously just when that Lantern Bearer came back to Old Town.

Which is making me think that the reason we're not ankle deep in Conspiracy shenanigans (besides an admittedly rather intimidating, well funded and well-equipped Anti-Espionage apparatus) is because they're caught up in some political in-fighting. Like Viserys has blasted some PR across the continent that it's just the really McBaddies like Tywin who are in his cross-hairs, even someone like the Hound was trusted enough to swear an oath to his sister. His royal sister and de facto heir.

God damn I love our PR. It must be really intimidating for a social build enemy to go up against us. It's not just pure diplomacy rolls after all, it's reputation and we manage our reputation better than enemies have ever besmirched it.
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You know, this post really shows how far we've come. I remember a time when we had no spy network of note and our own royal household was filled with foreign spies. I also remember back when we used to complain so much about our bad PR. Now, our reputation is one of our greatest strengths and our spy network is terrifying.
 
egoo said:
Ah, fuck, I kinda forgot about something.

@DragonParadox, would Fey count as such?

Yes, the Deities-related stuff doesn't mesh well with them - but I wanted to go to Orphne at the start of the next month and simply check if they have some means of further empowering the trap against Tiamat - or at least getting us a "safety net" in case she steamrolls through all our efforts on a nat100, in case they can't empower the WoS further.

I'm not sure I quite follow that, @DragonParadox.
We now have an entrance we know of beyond the "main" one, guarded by that Mindblank-through-seeing Undead? Or something?
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  1. No, on the fey, you might be able to mix certain fey with a particularly compatible god assuming you could wrangle them, but with this many gods involved in a balancing act no
  2. Yes, they managed to get a back door open with Anu's help, he is the one who built the place
 
TalonofAnathrax said:
@Crake has inspired me for the weirdest what-if ever : what if you were Robert Baratheon at quest start? Viserys hates you, your position is surprisingly terrible, and you're married to Cersei Lannister.
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Surprisingly, not join the Night's Watch immediately, since most of them would want to knife me in my sleep.

I would probably spend more time organizing a response against devils and fishmen and fey. I might even try to hint I was being a shitheel about Rhaenys and Aegon's deaths and just make it a habit to shout down people screaming about focusing on the Targaryens when Viserys starts gobbling up Essos and point out that we're infested with Outsiders and Undead and other shit still, and we won't have an army to deal with them if we let things fall apart at home regardless.

Question is, would my actually being a competent ruler get me assassinated sooner by Varys? The answer is yes.

So the above plan is actually a really bad idea. Unless I straight up kill Varys' simulacrum and use my Outside Context Knowledge to dismantle his spy network and try securing the Keep with more of my own men and resources than the Lannisters'. I would unsurprisingly be relying on Stannis more than Jon Arryn, because if I ask Stannis to do something I know he'll actually do it. Again I am at a serious risk of assassination by virtue of being too competent.

Though I kind of don't have much choice, a lot of the basis for Viserys' later days hatred is the fact that I became King and then promptly frittered away a fortune in favor, reputation and wealth simultaneously all to pursue a grudge. Of course it could have the reverse effect, I might be too good at being King that he just straight up kills me since doing otherwise would be very risky and even sending me to the Night's Watch wouldn't really remove my threat potential if like us he planned on dismantling the order after the Others are dealt with.

...basically, being Robert SI is suffering in most AUs. You quickly learn why he spent most of his time shitfaced when you're surrounded by vipers and cronies or total incompetents.
 
TalonofAnathrax said:
@Crake has inspired me for the shittiest what-if ever : what if you were Robert Baratheon at quest start? Viserys hates you, your position is surprisingly terrible, and you're married to Cersei Lannister.
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Well on the plus side Robert's reputation is so bad that no one will actually believe that whatever you try succeeded on purpose. If you can keep that going while leveling up properly you might get lucky and be able to flee safely to another plane.
 
BronzeTongue said:
Well on the plus side Robert's reputation is so bad that no one will actually believe that whatever you try succeeded on purpose. If you can keep that going while leveling up properly you might get lucky and be able to flee safely to another plane.
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At Quest start, Robert's reputation isn't actually untenable compared to after the Wildfire and plague ship plots. Pretty much everyone universally thinks he's a good war leader.

If I just start running the Kingdom like an army and the enemy general incompetence and alien infiltrators (and my own treacherous in-laws though less obviously) I could probably at least claw back the trust of most of the STAB alliance.
 
Crake said:
Surprisingly, not join the Night's Watch immediately, since most of them would want to knife me in my sleep.

I would probably spend more time organizing a response against devils and fishmen and fey. I might even try to hint I was being a shitheel about Rhaenys and Aegon's deaths and just make it a habit to shout down people screaming about focusing on the Targaryens when Viserys starts gobbling up Essos and point out that we're infested with Outsiders and Undead and other shit still, and we won't have an army to deal with them if we let things fall apart at home regardless.

Question is, would my actually being a competent ruler get me assassinated sooner by Varys? The answer is yes.

So the above plan is actually a really bad idea. Unless I straight up kill Varys' simulacrum and use my Outside Context Knowledge to dismantle his spy network and try securing the Keep with more of my own men and resources than the Lannisters'. I would unsurprisingly be relying on Stannis more than Jon Arryn, because if I ask Stannis to do something I know he'll actually do it. Again I am at a serious risk of assassination by virtue of being too competent.

Though I kind of don't have much choice, a lot of the basis for Viserys' later days hatred is the fact that I became King and then promptly frittered away a fortune in favor, reputation and wealth simultaneously all to pursue a grudge. Of course it could have the reverse effect, I might be too good at being King that he just straight up kills me since doing otherwise would be very risky and even sending me to the Night's Watch wouldn't really remove my threat potential if like us he planned on dismantling the order after the Others are dealt with.

...basically, being Robert SI is suffering in most AUs. You quickly learn why he spent most of his time shitfaced when you're surrounded by vipers and cronies or total incompetents.
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Wait a minute. You think that Varys already had that Simulacrum at quest start?
Yikes, that makes everything so much harder. I'd assumed that you could just kill Varys immediately and call it a day.

I'm also not convinced that Stannis is a good agent. Sure he'll do the job, but will he be good at doing the job? Especially if the job is politics.
 
I remember back when I was still trying to do my own Sword Without a Hilt-esque story (I have since learned that I don't have the patience to really do it long-term), I specifically wanted to play a House that wasn't one of the Great Lords, but was decently powerful. Bolton, Dayne, Florent, etc. I liked the idea of carving out an area of influence for that House.
 
TalonofAnathrax said:
Wait a minute. You think that Varys already had that Simulacrum at quest start?
Yikes, that makes everything so much harder. I'd assumed that you could just kill Varys immediately and call it a day.

I'm also not convinced that Stannis is a good agent. Sure he'll do the job, but will he be good at doing the job? Especially if the job is politics.
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At the end of the day I am surrounded by idiots, cowards or traitors. Stannis will be my blunt instrument to sweep away the detritus and a good enough excuse for sidelining Arryn after the first bit of clan raiding starts up and I tell him he needs to get his Kingdom back into line. By that point I will hopefully still have his loyalty and have convinced him I'm actually taking my job seriously now.

Stannis may not be perfect but he's better than people who are literally planning on murdering me sooner and sooner each time I act outside their preconceptions of me.
 
Crake said:
Since when do you make plans? :eyeroll:


:V
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*😭 intensifies*

Oh well, I suppose I'll just leave that to you, then.
egoo said:
[] Have the talk with Stannis - the Storm God can do much for the realm, and him personally. So far he seemed a goal-minded man, so we believe he'll see the merit in converting to the just and practical God of First Men.
-[] In case of success, also retrieve the Heart Tree from the Storm's End - putting an exact fleshforged copy, with permanenced (Diamond dust) Fire Resistance, on it.
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:whistle:
 
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